Vice Versa
by Nimondor
Summary: What happens when black holes begin to appear in the game world and throw the dex holders into the anime world? Will the dex holders ever be able to get back home? Who knows! Elements of Manga, Games and Anime mixed into one.
1. Mount Silver: Prologue

**Before we begin this awesome that is the story of mine, this fanfiction will focus mainly on the game/manga characters, seeing how they are the ones trying to get home while the anime characters are already home. Without further ado, here is Vice Versa!**

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**Mt. Silver**

The blizzard never ceased to end up in the mountains, especially just outside of a cave near the snowy peak. It was deathly cold, but for one certain silent trainer, he was used to it, mainly after five years of training. The cold reminded him of his journey through Kanto, how he had defeated Team Rocket and Giovanni single-handed, the two other trainers who had gotten their starters with him had mostly avoided such danger. He figured Green and Blue were the smart ones, avoiding danger at every corner. It almost felt like he attracted any kind of situation, whether it was over the Nugget Bridge or Lavender Town.

He was, however, a bit bored with waiting for challengers. According to the kid from Johto, he still retained the title of champion of Kanto even though he had been beaten by him. He had declared that he didn't want any titles, just to challenge himself and had even tried several times to persuade him to train him. But other than that… he believed the trek up and down the mountain was too hazardous to take anymore, any challenger that would make it through the first few tunnels would give up and turn around. The wild pokémon would tear their teams apart, crushing any hope of ever reaching the rumored champion that still resided in the icy mountain.

As he started to dwell deep into his memories, he smiled a bit. Pikachu and the others were training themselves as usual. Pikachu had been his starter and even though he was the smallest, he was a powerful little mouse and still regretted trying to shove a thunderstone into his face to get him to evolve. Blastoise was trying to perfect his Hydro Cannon, aiming the twin guns out of his shell towards a pile of snow that turned out to be Snorlax, well, snoring away. After he was hit, Snorlax immediately became irritated and as the two brawled it out, Espeon only shook her head at them. Venusaur was being shielded from the ice by Charizard's wings, causing Red to remind himself how many times the large fire-type had saved his own life from falling. As he became deep in thought, he turned around, hearing Pikachu's thunderbolts stopping and suddenly cry out, "Pi Pikachu!"

He frowned. There were different cries for Pikachu, the one he was saying now was to get his attention, telling him something was coming out of the cave. He could make out a human, and beside him a Typhlosion. The Johto kid was back, but he looked a little older since the first time he had met him, but his goggles were on his hat instead of his eyes like last time. Perhaps the blizzard wasn't as bad as last time he came to challenge him. "Red, I'm not here to challenge you this time, but I am here with a message," he said over the harsh winds and approached him. Pikachu tilted his head and looked up at Red, who seemed to be a little curious now.

"…" Red looked at Gold expectantly, his other pokémon having stopped training as well to listen to what the Johto kid had to say.

"Professor Oak sent me, he said he wants to see you. All of the other Pokédex Holders from the other regions are there, but we guess you never got any of the messages." He noticed his pokégear was turned off, something he had given to him two visits ago. "Ahem, anyway, he won't tell us what's going on unless you're with us. But I have a feeling that I know what's going on, there's a tournament that will happen in Unova in a month's time, and maybe he wants us to participate." He shrugged. "I think we'd be a little out of their league, though. But they haven't even finished building the arena yet. But if it isn't that, then the professor's really agitated about something."

Red frowned. He didn't want to leave the mountain, this was his training area but it did sound nice to go home for once. The last time he had seen Pallet Town was… Arceus, he had no clue. Ever since he had won the championship, he never returned home, not even to see his mother or the old professor. If Professor Oak was worried about something, though, he doubted it was a tournament in some far-off region he'd never heard of before. He turned around towards his pokémon, seeing the fire in their eyes returning as soon as he smirked a bit.

He looked down as Espeon nudged his leg gently, urging him to go. Finally he scratched her head and looked back at Gold, giving him a nod. The Johto kid burst into a smile, giving a fist-pump. "Yes! Now Silver owes me a hundred pokédollars! I bet him that you would come the first time I asked instead of him. I'll lead the way down… Or, um… you can always fly Charizard, it would be quicker too," he said as Red recalled everyone except Charizard and climbed onto his back. Gold threw a pokéball of his own out and out came a Togekiss. "You think you can fly out of here, Toga?"

Toga beamed. "Kiss, Togekiss!"

Gold nodded and recalled Typhlosion. Red had already left, flying through the clouds and into warmer weather. As Mount Silver's sheer beauty and danger disappeared, he flew over the Indigo Plateau and several routes, heading straight for Pallet Town without a second glance towards the mountain.

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******So this just a little sumtin-sumtin I thought up of at 4 a.m. and decided to continue with :P This Gold is based off of my HeartGold team (Typhlosion, Ampharos (Amper), Sudowoodo (Sudo), Azmarill (Azuma), Girafarig (Gira), and Togekiss (Toga)), and Typhlosion is the only one who doesn't have a nickname, everything else that I caught does. I dunno why. But Typhlosion sounds a lot like Explosion and that sounds epic.** Anyway, thanks for reading and please favorite/follow/review! :D


	2. Pallet Town, Kanto

**Pallet Town, Kanto**

Blue was getting impatient.

He hadn't talked to his rival in years, much less seen him, and he had no idea how he could have survived alone on Mount Silver by himself _and_ he couldn't believe he had been beaten by a kid from Johto. All of the other Dex holders that waited with him were chatting amongst themselves, having completely forgotten about the oldest of them. Green and Yellow, however, were absent from their meeting. Green had agreed with Blue to help run the gym in his absence, and Yellow was off doing her own errand for the professor. Whatever that was, it was a tad bit annoying that he let the two girls off but made them wait for Red.

The only other silent one was the kid Silver. He was still, however, unlike Blue's constantly tapping foot, and his eyes were closed as if he were sleeping upright in his chair. As Blue scanned the waiting room, he seemed to be getting lost in memories until a hand shook his shoulder roughly to catch his attention. "What?" he asked in annoyance.

"I heard you're a gym leader, so while we wait, can we have a battle?" asked the girl. She had a blue bandanna and brown hair, a matching blue shirt and black shorts. "The name's Sapphire, by the way. Sapphire Birch." Ah, she was a Hoenn girl. The wild girl everyone talked about, the one who could control the legendary Groudon with the Blue Orb. He'd heard of their feats in every region, but he had no idea it was just some girl who helped beat not one, but two villainous organizations.

Blue got up from his chair, putting his hands across his chest. "Might as well, could pass the time at least." He led the way out and eager to watch a battle, the others followed. They were out on the field soon enough and the kid named Pearl was refereeing for them. Overly impatient, he seemed to want to get the battle started right away no matter what. "Two versus two sound good, kid?"

"I'm not a kid! I'm only four years younger than you!" Blue grinned and sent out Arcanine first while Sapphire sent out a Donphan. "Dono, let's do it!" Sapphire smiled. "Don't hold back now, Blue, I'm as powerful as they come!"

_No… you aren't._ He chose not to reply to her comment and pointed towards Dono. "Arcanine, ExtremeSpeed!"

"Dono, Rollout!"

"Arcanine, dodge it! Get in the air and use Flamethrower!"

Dono missed his attack as Arcanine jumped into the air and as he reared back for a Flamethrower, Sapphire called, "Dono! Defense Curl!"

Dono gritted his teeth when the Flamethrower hit but he still stood as Arcanine landed gracefully on the ground, tail swishing back and forth, excited about the battle now. Blue grunted something and thrust his hand forward again. "Arcanine, get over there and use Close Combat!"

"Use Magnitude, Dono!" Dono reared up and gave a loud cry before slamming his two front paws onto the ground. The ground shook violently and Arcanine lost his footing before he could reach Dono, giving his own cry of shock and pain as the ground collapsed within itself. The spectators yelped with shock, some holding onto each other to keep from falling down.

"No! Arcanine!" Arcanine had fainted, and Blue scoffed, recalling him. "You got lucky, Sapphire."

"And Arcanine is down, come on, next pokémon, we don't have all day!" Pearl shouted and Platinum rolled her eyes, sitting beside Diamond, who was eating a sandwich happily. "Dia—no, Diamond! Pay attention! You could learn a thing or two from this battle!"

Both Blue and Dia ignored Pearl and threw out another ball and without waiting for it to open, he shouted, "Exeggutor, Leaf Storm!"

As the Exeggutor popped out, the attack was already flying towards Dono. Sapphire had tried to tell it to dodge but it was too slow and ultimately fainted. Sapphire pouted a little and recalled Dono as she tried thinking of the best pokémon to deal with the enemy. She looked at Ruby, who was sitting on the grass with his Mightyena beside him, brushing her fur and not paying attention to any battle she would have. Why would he? He was into contests, not battles even if he was Norman's son. He was pretty cute though—

"You still there, Sapphire or you too busy looking at your boyfriend?"

Sapphire instantly snapped her head towards Blue, trying to hide her blushing by shouting, "He's not my boyfriend!" She finally threw out a pokéball, grinning. "Toro!" A Blaziken came out, pumping her fists at Exeggutor. "Blaze Kick!"

Blue rose a brow. A fighting/fire-type against a grass/psychic-type? This battle should be interesting enough. "Zen Headbutt!"

The two pokémon clashed and both jumped back to their respective trainers, winded but otherwise unharmed. "Let's finish this, Toro, use Blast Burn!"

Ultimately, the victory was Sapphire's and as she hugged Toro tightly, Blue recalled Exeggutor, going to her. "You're good, I'll give you that. I thought at least two psychic attacks would bring your Blaziken down."

"Thanks, but Toro's pretty roughed up and is tired too."

Ruby came over to them. "It was a good battle, but you made a mess of Toro's feathers too, now I have to fix it again," he said, inspecting the Blaziken with a hand on his chin.

Sapphire immediately scoffed at him. "When yeh battle, yeh don't care about looks!" she cried, her odd accent suddenly appearing and she spun to face him.

"Well when I battle, my pokémon's fur doesn't get all mussed up like yours!"

"Contest freak!"

"Barbarian!"

As the two argued and bickered, Crystal sighed, shaking her head and blinked as she looked up at the sky. It was a wonderful day to be outside, but since she had no reason to go out and capture pokémon, all she was doing was waiting for Gold to return. He was the one who had found out the Kanto champion was still… She squinted suddenly, covering her eyes with a hand to shield them from the sunlight, then broke into a grin once she saw the Togekiss come closer. "Gold's back!" she shouted and got up. Silver looked just as surprised as the others. As Gold landed and recalled Toga, he blinked as Crystal rushed to him. "We thought you'd be gone for a few more hours, did you find him?"

He nodded. "He said he'd come, but obviously he hasn't shown up yet, has he?" he replied and Silver shook his head. "Sheesh, and he even left before I did."

"You're the first one back then," he said as they clasped each other's arms in greeting. "But if I don't see him within the next half hour, you owe me a hundred pokédollars."

Gold had to blink a few times. "What?! You still aren't going on about that, are you?"

Blue sighed as he watched the bickering trios and duo, knowing all too well what that bickering felt like, especially with Green. She was never one for traveling, and if he thought Pearl talked too much, they had never met Green before. He glanced over when Platinum approached them. "What's this Red like anyway? We aren't from Kanto or Johto, so we don't have a clue as to who he is." The innocent question made Blue frown, silently trying to figure out what to say.

As he hesitated, Gold looked at Silver and Crystal. "Well… we started our journey together," Blue finally said softly. "He's always been quiet though, I've only rarely ever heard him speak. We beat every gym in Kanto and I got to the Indigo Plateau first and became the champion. Then he came along and squashed me without so much as breaking a sweat, but instead of staying as champion, he decided to leave and gave the title to Lance and disappeared. Lance claimed that he was already Johto champion and gave it back to Red, but he didn't know he was still champion. He just… disappeared after the League, though. None of us knew where he was, if he was dead or if he was alive." He sighed as he looked up at the sky. "Three years after he won the league, this kid from Johto traveled up the mountain, battled him and defeated him."

Gold smiled proudly. "That's right I did. Toughest battle ever, I only beat him by luck. It was an awful blizzard that day, though. After I beat him, he disappeared, maybe to go heal his pokémon."

"In any case, he's late, as usual, and I don't know if he would want to come or not." Blue got up. "Let's go back inside, he'll come when he comes."

He let the others wander inside first and stared up at the sky hard, hesitating a few times before breaking into a rare smile, walking away from the door. "Blue? Are you coming in?" a curious Diamond asked, looking up at him.

The elder trainer didn't look back at him. "He's coming. See there, kid?" He pointed and soon a clear Charizard was there. "They say that he owns the largest Charizard in the entire region, and I wouldn't doubt that." As soon as Gold heard, he poked his head out the door, rushing outside immediately. Blue was confused. Gold acted like Red was his best friend or something, they only ever met that one time to battle and to tell him that he was wanted by Professor Oak, right?

When Red finally landed, Blue's happiness dissipated. All he could feel was angry, especially as Red recalled Charizard and looked at Blue for the first time in five years. He'd grown, they were finally the same height now, but Blue noticed he looked far older than his sixteen-year-old self. He looked more rugged, exhausted and wise all at the same time, but a young light still shone in those red eyes, even if he didn't speak about it. "Red. You know, instead of training for five years straight like a maniac, you could have just come over and said hello once in a while. You know you had Gramps and your mom worried sick all this time, right?" He wanted to punch the former champion but as much as he wanted to, he knew it would only make matters worse. He spun on his heels. "Come on, everyone is waiting inside."

Gold very nearly dragged his poor idol through the halls of the lab, but he let go when they reached the main lab where everyone else was at and wandered to where Silver and Crystal were.

Ruby looked over along with everyone else when Gold and Blue entered, leading a somewhat reluctant teenager behind them. Whoever he was, he could only assume this was Red, and power seemed to radiate off of him, making even Sapphire nervous. Professor Oak had come in from the other side and stopped. "Red!" He smiled brightly and went to the young man, yanking him into a tight hug and Red couldn't hide his embarrassment, awkwardly patting the old man's shoulder before pulling away. "Good, your mother will want to see you. But first, I've called all of you here for a reason. Come follow me." He led the way out of the main lab and into a different part of the building, one full of screens that showed a large body of water that was swirling violently. "This whirlpool appeared a few days ago, anything that has gotten stuck in it hasn't come out yet. I don't know where it came from, but it was all of a sudden."

Blue frowned. "Why are you calling us then, Gramps?"

"Shouldn't more experienced trainers or rangers be investigating this instead of a group of kids?" Platinum asked and Ruby nodded in agreement.

"Because none of them have a pokédex like you do. You have all proven to be worthy trainers, coordinators and most importantly, you all love and respect your pokémon. Now run along, the very least someone could do is scan the water with their pokédex, right?"

Red frowned. _Easier said than done… And why is he just sending us out now?_ He figured Professor Oak was just being his own self. As much as he wanted to see his mother, however, he decided he could see her once he returned with the others. It shouldn't take long anyway, just a day or so. Maybe then he could apologize to her for being gone for so long.

Pearl rubbed his head. "Where is this place anyway?" he asked.

"Not too far really, just off of Cinnabar Island, should only take a few days to get there."

Sapphire suddenly grinned. "We can take ol' Walo there!"

"Or why not just a boat," Ruby groaned, "like civilized people?"

"You just aren't adventurous enough."

"You're a wild child! I have no need to go running off into a filthy salty ocean, you know."

The others simply sweat-dropped at their bickering.

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**Personally, I think Ruby's the best manga character. I love him, he's adorable x3 He and Gold are my top two. What about you? Who is your favorite Pokémon character? Please follow/favorite/review! They're all lovely things that I love.**


	3. Cinnabar Island, Kanto

**Cinnabar Island, Kanto**

As the island grew closer, the dex holders were growing more and more restless. Those who hadn't seen the destruction of the volcano seemed to be visibly shaken by the hardened lava, but they were relieved to see a pokémon center. Pearl was the first to jump off of Walo along with Ruby, followed by the others. "Ha! I stepped on the beach first so you owe me a million pokédollars!" Pearl shouted at Ruby, who scowled. "So pay up!"

"You wish, blondie," he retorted and yawned, stretching his arms and back from the long ride.

Pearl continued as if he didn't hear him. "Besides, what's with the white hair? Aren't you a little young to be doing that?"

Ruby snapped towards him, pointing a finger in his face. "I'm a year older than you and my hair isn't white, it's a hat!"

As the two bickered, Sapphire patted Walo's side in thanks, watching the giant pokémon leave them be and disappear into the sea. As they headed towards the pokémon center for the night, Diamond stopped and turned to look at Red.

The tall teenager didn't follow them, instead he was frowning up at the volcano. It had erupted since last he'd been here, the town was covered in rock, it looked completely different than last he'd remembered. The only building standing was the pokémon center and even it looked run-down by now. No one visited here much, it seemed, if only for the occasional gym battle against Blaine, but even that wasn't here. Blue had mentioned something about the gym being re-located in the Seafoam Islands and ever since Articuno was gone, he figured it would be the perfect spot for a fire-type gym.

Diamond, however, went up to him, smiling up at the pokémon master. "I know that look. It's when you're lost in memories, huh?" he said and Red's frown grew before he looked at the boy. "I know you don't talk much, but if it's some bad memories you're thinking of, you could always talk to us. We're friends now, after all, right? But you'd better come inside before all of the food is gone, Pearl says he doesn't eat as much as I do, but we all know I can probably empty Nurse Joy's food supply within a day if she let me." Red blinked a few times at this odd child. Here he was, intimidating most of them and he decides to run to him and call him a friend? He decided he should probably try to become more social in that moment, he hardly had anyone he called a friend. He smiled at Diamond and nodded.

Gold was waiting at the door for the two of them and finally with one last look up at the destroyed mountain face, Red headed inside as well. Blue was getting keys for all of them as the others gathered up food for themselves. "Before you guys start eating, you should go put your stuff away. We'll be here for a few days, I think, so here. Ruby and Sapphire will share a room. Gold and Silver, Pearl and Diamond, Platinum and Crystal, and last but not least me and Red."

Red winced; he already knew they would be having a long discussion, Blue hadn't spoken to him since they were at the lab and he could tell his emotions were all over the place. After everything that had happened, they were best friends, even after the championship, or at least he hoped. Once dinner was finished and the others were in their rooms, Blue walked inside of the room he shared with Red, who was currently in his briefs and a t-shirt, with Pikachu claiming his hat and sleeping inside of it on his stomach. He looked up when the door opened and then back at Pikachu, scratching his head and picked him up gently. "I can see why Gramps scolded me instead of you when you beat me at the League," Blue said as Red set Pikachu onto the bed again.

Red gave him a quizzical look. This wasn't like Blue, he seemed like he had finally grown up instead of being his cocky, self-centered bastard who popped in every chance he could get and battle him when his pokémon were all weakened from his travels.

"At first I didn't know what he was talking about, but then I realized I pushed them too hard and didn't care about anything else except for earning the title of Champion and beating you. When you beat Charizard, I didn't know if my other pokémon could beat Pikachu at all." He sat down on the other bed, taking off his shoes as he spoke. After he put his shoes to the side, he looked up at him seriously. "Why did you leave, Red? You left without telling anyone, not even so much as a good-bye. You threw away your title and ran off. We only found out you were there when Gold came back to Gramps and told him he had fought against you and beat you. Gramps only gave him that pass because of the very strong pokémon out there and he hoped that you were there. Turns out you were. How did you survive up there with just a t-shirt and jeans anyway?"

Red frowned, looking at the floor and a rush of memories came flooding back and he opened his mouth but closed it again, not sure how to tell him but looked up again as Blue's bed creaked as he stood up and didn't expect the sudden pain in his cheek and jaw. Pikachu was staring at Blue now, wide awake but his cheeks were sparking as he gave a death glare after he had slapped him as hard as he could. There were tears in those eyes as Blue shouted, "For three years we thought you were dead! Do you know how it feels to not know what happened to someone you care about, and then all of a sudden show up out of the blue? I bet you don't, Red!"

He fell to his knees, unable to contain himself anymore and Red frowned, and as much as his cheek and jaw hurt, he did deserve it and he went to his knees in front of Blue, pulling him into a hug. Blue's head sagged into his shoulder, causing guilt to spread inside of Red like a wildfire. "…I'm sorry," he muttered, finally realizing how much he had hurt his friends and family. If Blue was acting like this, who knows how his mother would handle it.

"You're such an idiot, Red. You know that right?" Blue finally managed to say after pulling away and wiped his eyes after he was finished bawling his eyes out. Red smiled and nodded then helped Blue up to his feet again. "But… we should get some sleep. Tomorrow, we'll look for that whirlpool Gramps talked about. And Red?" Red looked at him as he pulled the sheets on top of himself. "Thanks… for not dying, and all. And don't tell anyone I was crying, I will kill you if you do."

Red smiled again and nodded. As his head hit the pillows, he suddenly remembered how comfortable a bed was, even if it was one of the pokémon center beds that everyone complained that they were too hard and lumpy.

Morning arrived all too quickly. At least, that's what the other Dex holders thought. The rude awakening of the ground shaking brutally caused Ruby to yelp and fall out of his bed, still covered in his sheets. He looked around as the shaking subsided. "What kind of earthquake was that?" he heard from the hall. Sapphire opened the door and Gold was rubbing his side as if he had fallen out of bed as well from the room across theirs.

But Blue and Red were running outside, already fully clothed and nearly ran into Gold and Silver if they hadn't jumped out of the way. "What's going on?" Crystal asked and Platinum shrugged, but soon they were outside as well, stopping behind Red and Blue, looking up to see what they were staring at. They all paled, they had never seen anything like that before.

Up in the night sky, there was a distinctive black spot above the water, sucking up the sea like a backwards water twister. "What the hell is that?" It was Silver who had spoken, but the question remained unanswered for a long time before finally, realization hit one of the Sinnoh trio members.

"It's… Giratina's work," Diamond said softly, his usual smile replaced with his own frown.

"And how do you know that?" Blue asked and tore his eyes off of the water, looking at the younger boy.

"Because Pearl, Platinum and I had to fight against Team Galactic at the Spear Pillar." As the others looked at him in confusion, he took a deep breath. "Team Galactic tried to summon Dialga and Palkia, but because Cyrus made them fight each other, Giratina showed up in the same way. It was angry because the guardians of space and time were fighting, the realm leaders weren't supposed to ever meet and yet they did all because of Cyrus. After we helped free Dialga and Palkia, Giratina pulled Cyrus in and on the other side is the Distortion World, and if anything or anyone gets caught in it, you'll have a hard time getting out unless you have Mesprit, Uxie and Azelf with you."

All of these new names were frustrating for Red, he had no clue what a Giratina was, much less a Distortion World or who Cyrus was, but he figured when the black hole started to move, it wouldn't be a good thing. But two specific pokémon to rule over space and time? That was… an odd thought.

"Then… why would Giratina come here? We aren't anywhere near Sinnoh," Crystal asked, and Platinum shook her head.

"Giratina rules over the Distortion World, like a medium between Palkia's realm and Dialga's. Something must have happened for it to get upset," she added. "But if another portal decides to show up, we need to find Azelf, Uxie and Mesprit as fast as we can and help calm Giratina down."

Blue was on his pokégear, talking to his grandfather already as he relayed information for him. "Red, for god's sake turn on your damned pokégear and at least record this for Gramps!" he was scolding, but Red blinked, pulling out the device he'd never used from his pocket and scratched his head. "Don't tell me you don't know how to use it. Arceus, you're useless right now—Gold! Get over here and get your—"

"Already on it," Gold said and had his pokégear out, using the little camera to record images to send to Professor Oak as well. "By the way, Red, you need to turn on the pokégear first, just press this button right here."

Blue put the professor on speaker and they could almost hear him rubbing his chin. "Hmm… This is interesting. I suggest you stay away from that for now, who knows what will happen if you get sucked up into that thing."

"That's the thing, Gramps. I think it's moving towards the island."

Blue was right, and they had no time to avoid it. "How did you close it last time again?" Ruby asked the Sinnoh Pokédex Holders nervously.

"We need to stop it before it reaches the island!" Sapphire cried, looking nervous.

"We had to fight Giratina. But if we can keep the portal open long enough we should be able to beat it and come back safely before it closes," Pearl replied and threw a pokéball out. "Zelhiko!" A Buizel appeared, looking up at its trainer and snorted, his tails twitching with immediate annoyance. "We can either swim or fly to the portal, and beat Giratina. Everyone else has water or a flying type to get there, right?"

Several pokémon were released, such as Red's Blastoise, Crystal's Xatu, Silver's Gyarados and Ruby's Milotic for starters. Gold hopped on Blastoise behind Red as Professor Oak's voice said from Blue's pokégear, "Don't go! This is a stupid idea! If you can't get out then who can help you get back home?"

"Hey, prof, we got the pokémon master here, what can go wrong?" Gold said and grinned.

"We're going in whether you like it or not, Gramps," Blue replied and hung up despite the professor's warnings.

However, none of them needed to worry about going up the water spout, the portal pulled them all out of the water. "Wah! I don't like free flying upwards!" Gold exclaimed, arms flailing.

All of them shouted something from shock or fear, and before he could get separated from his pokémon, Red recalled Blastoise, much to Gold's displeasure. Gold blinked when he grabbed his arm and then Blue's next, who seemed to take the hint. "Hold onto someone! Don't get separated from each other!" Blue shouted over the roar of the water, recalling Pidgeot and took Diamond's arm, while the other group held onto each other. Crystal reached for them and Gold nearly caught her fingers but a violent wind separated all of them and the moment he was through, Red saw black and his consciousness slipped away.

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**Uh-uh, what's going on? Where on earth could they be going? :o Well. I'm pretty sure you all know :P Thanks for reading and please review/follow/favorite!**


	4. Viridian Forest, Kanto

**Viridian Forest, Kanto**

A little ways from the popular Viridian City, the forest was humming with action. Pokémon everywhere were pleased that the warm summer day was finally here, it wasn't too cold or too hot, perfect for bothering trainers all around. One group of trainers seemed to get lucky without having to battle any said pokémon, but they certainly bothered one of them. "Ugh, I've had just about enough of all these bugs," complained an orange-haired girl who wore a yellow shirt and shorts, screeching at every sight of bug that came near them.

Another girl sighed. "Honestly, Misty, you're a gym leader, you shouldn't be afraid of little Caterpie," Dawn said and giggled again as Misty screamed at the sight of a Weedle, which didn't seem to care about them and disappeared into the grass.

"Pika, Pikachu," Pikachu said as he sat on top of Ash's head.

His trainer smiled and scratched Pikachu's head. "That's right, and we're almost home, so my Mom's gonna have a bunch of food cooked and it'll all be awesome!" Ash exclaimed, anticipation of food in his eyes.

"Well it's good to know you haven't changed, Ash," Brock said, smiling.

Ash smiled at them and shrugged. "I won't ever change, it's hard being me and I'd like to keep it that way."

"You know that makes you sound a little like Cynthia," Dawn replied and Piplup yawned in agreement.

"No it doesn't!"

"If you think about it, it does!"

Brock and Misty both sighed, both not missing any of the arguments between traveling companions. They were taking a break from the Sinnoh League, and after losing said League, Ash had decided to head home before going to Unova, where he figured he could start anew, hopefully without any annoying Team Rocket drama along the way. Pikachu hopped off of Ash's head, his ears twitching but it went unnoticed by the humans as they argued with each other.

Their talking halted suddenly when they felt rain drops hit their head. All four of them looked up, confused. "How come it's raining but there's no clouds?" Ash blurted.

"It isn't," Misty replied.

"This is salt water," Brock added, adding more confusion. "But it doesn't rain salt water, salt is formed from the ground, isn't it?"

They then heard Pikachu cry out and they looked at him as he pointed through the trees. When he started running, Ash immediately chased him. "Pikachu, where are you going? Hey, wait up!" The four of them rushed after the electric mouse, finally noticing he had a specific destination in mind. Soon they reached a small lake, and straight above it was a large black hole spewing sea water out. "What… what is that?" Ash stammered, feeling a fear he'd never felt before until now. Sure, giant pokémon scared him too, but this was just… odd.

"Don't black holes belong in space? Are we going to be sucked up into one?" Dawn asked and Piplup cried out something, holding onto Dawn's leg tightly.

"Pikachu! Pika! Pika! Chu, chu!"

"What's wrong, Pikachu?" Ash looked down at Pikachu as he pulled against his pant leg then pointed near the top of the water, seeing three human-shaped figures falling down and the portal closed. His eyes widened, grabbing a pokéball and shouted, "Staraptor, catch them before they hit the water!"

"Togekiss, you too!" Dawn cried and the two flying pokémon flew in a rush to catch the three humans before they hit the water.

Staraptor caught the one that was near the top while Togekiss tried to catch the last two, but there was a blur and then a loud splash and the two pokémon gave an anguished cry. "Buizel, let's go!" Ash shouted and jumped into the water after dumping his backpack with the others. He took a deep breath as he dove underwater with Buizel, spotting the quickly sinking teenager almost immediately. _What? He… looks like me?_ He shook his head, figuring saving the teen was more important rather than looks. _Never mind, at this rate, he'll drown before I can ask him questions! Come on, Buizel! Hurry!_ As soon as he was close enough, he grabbed his arm and swam up towards the surface quickly.

He took a deep breath as soon as they broke it and the teenager coughed up water but slipped unconscious again as they swam for the shore. Once they reached it, Ash gasped with exhaustion, helping Brock lay him away from the water to be with the other two that had fallen through. "Are they gonna be okay?" Ash asked after a few minutes of Brock making sure none of them were hurt.

Brock nodded and looked at the three people. "Well, Gary look-alike looks like he's about to wake up, same with the other two."

"Gary look-alike?" He looked at the other copy. Indeed this guy looked like Gary but he was older and looked far more mature than Gary would ever be. Confusion hit him and he looked at the one who was similar to him. They both had black hair but Ash was even more confused. "Where did they come from?"

"I don't know," Misty replied carefully. "They traveled through a black hole, maybe they came from space."

"I highly doubt that," Dawn replied and looked at the three as they began to wake up.

"Ow… ow…" muttered the one with the goggles and shorts. He sat up and rubbed his head and blinked his golden eyes, looking at the four that were taking care of them. "Ahh… I don't think the Distortion World looks like this…" Realization seemed to hit the odd boy and he jumped, looking around wildly. "Wah! Where are we? Who are you?"

"Would you shut it already, Gold?" the Gary look-alike grumbled as he rubbed his head and looked around. The last one was awake, looking very confused as to why he was soaking wet and his companions weren't.

"Um… Gary? What are you doing here?" Ash asked and the look-alike looked at him and then at Ash's look-alike. Gary-look-alike turned his head towards him and scowled, looking annoyed. "Well… you are Gary, right?"

He shook his head. "No, my name isn't Gary. It's Blue Oak, remember that, twerp." He grunted something as he got up, wincing as he rubbed his legs.

Ash huffed and Pikachu's cheeks sparked as well. "Hey! We just saved your lives!"

Blue blinked several times and looked up at the sky. "Gold is right though, this isn't the Distortion World."

Dawn frowned. "Why were you trying to get into the Distortion World? You aren't part of Team Galactic are you?"

He snorted. "No. There was a black hole that had opened up above the ocean off of Cinnabar Island, we all went to go see if we could fight Giratina or calm it down so that it wouldn't hurt the people but I guess… I don't really remember what happened. All I remember is that something dragged us up and then I woke up here. You, Red?"

The one named Red shook his head silently, then looked at Ash as he stuck his face near his while Pikachu seemed to be confused. "Why do you look like me anyway? Oh, but I'm Ash, this is Pikachu, that's Mis—"

"Misty, Brock and Platinum?" Blue interrupted and Dawn blinked, then shook her head. Why in Arceus' name would they call her Platinum? She wasn't a metal!

"No, my name's Dawn. But how do you know Misty and Brock?"

"They're gym leaders like me. But… I don't think we're anywhere near Cinnabar island, are we?"

Gold got up, stretching. "Where are we, anyway? This looks kinda like Viridian Forest, but where is everyone else?" Suddenly he was standing on one of the fallen logs and cupped his hands around his mouth then finally shouted, "Silver! Crystal! Where are you?"

"Warn us next time you shout!" Misty yelled at Gold, who spun around to look at her.

"You're one to talk! You just shouted right at me!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

The others sweat-dropped. "Anyway, we're going to Pallet Town, maybe Professor Oak can help you, we're almost there too. Just need to pass Viridian City and then we're through to Pallet Town," Brock said and looked at the three teenagers that stood up. The one called Red… even though he looked similar to Ash, there was an obvious difference between them. He was silent, yet his eyes were a scary-looking red and strength radiated off of him without him meaning to. Brock was intimidated, by all three of them, in fact, yet he smiled anyway. "Do you want to join us?"

"That would be a good idea. Yes, let's get going." Blue threw out a pokéball, releasing Pidgeot while Red grabbed his own pokéball and out came Charizard while Gold did the same for Toga. When the other four hadn't released any pokémon, Blue grew confused. "Well? Are you coming or not?"

The four companions looked at each other. "You're flying there? We thought we'd just walk," Misty said and Blue frowned with Red.

"That would take hours, just hop on, there's enough room for two on Pidgeot and three on Charizard. The last one can go on Toga."

Ash noticed how powerful all three of those pokémon looked, especially the Charizard and Togekiss. Deciding he'd ride on Charizard with Brock and Red, they climbed on and soon they all took off with great speed. "So… Red… Are you from Pallet Town too?" he asked after a few minutes of awkward silence. Red's face seemed to fall a little and he looked away before he nodded once. "Why the long face? You'll get to meet my mom too! She has the best cooking ever!" Ash, although he meant well, was growing frustrated when Red still said nothing. "Don't you talk, Red? You just fell from a hole in the sky and almost drowned and I saved your life, you won't even thank me?"

Red seemed to be frowning, irritation clear in his features but he simply nodded once again, this time slower, as if trying to get his point across. _This other me is going to be the death of me, I swear._

"Fine, fine. You don't talk, you could've just said so."

Brock groaned loudly at his friend.

* * *

**So... I haven't seen the anime in ages. I have to do a little research on everyone's Sinnoh teams, but I'm not including anything Unova anime stuff in this story. Please review/follow/favorite! c:**


	5. Pallet Town, Kanto: Professor Oak's Lab

**Pallet Town, Kanto**

They all landed at the same time in front of Professor Oak's laboratory. It wasn't any different from the lab Blue, Red and Gold knew, but the outside was definitely odd. Pokémon were outside of their balls, and as they approached the door, several of them stared at them all, especially a Muk that seemed to be confused as it watched Ash and Red. "Professor Oak! Professor Oak! We need to see you!" Ash cried and Misty whapped the back of his head. "Ow, Misty!"

"Can't you be quiet for once and just knock like a normal person, Ash?" she snapped.

"That hurt!"

"Yea, well, you deserve it."

Gold snickered at them. "You two remind me of me and Super Serious Gal. Crystal's always so serious and she hits me a lot too."

Blue rolled his eyes and Red smiled a bit. The door was opened by a boy clad in green and he gave a bright smile when he saw them. "Ash! You brought a whole party to see us!" Tracey exclaimed and let them in, seemingly uncaring about the duplicates. "Professor Oak is over here." He opened up another door. "Professor, Ash and some of his friends are here."

Professor Oak looked up. "Ash, how wonderful to see you again!" He paused as he looked at Blue, Red and Gold. "Oh, dear. Two Ashes and Gary too?"

Blue groaned. Being called 'Gary' was starting to get annoying, even more so than before. "For the hundredth time, I'm not Gary! I'm Blue!"

The old man looked confused and soon Gold found himself telling the whole story to them, from Professor Oak calling the meeting, to trying to enter the portal together and finally how they were now separated from the others. Gold sighed. "So we don't know where Silver, Crystal, Ruby, Sapphire, Pearl, Diamond or Platinum are. They could be anywhere in the world right now!" he concluded and Professor Oak was rubbing his chin. "This place isn't much bigger than our world, I hope. Right?"

Blue noticed when the professor rubbed his chin, he looked exactly like their professor, a split image of his elderly grandfather. "I'd imagine two parallel worlds are probable, and seeing the three of you it's true. You say it might have been Giratina? That makes sense, as Giratina is the ruled of the Reverse World, or in your case, the Distortion World. I would have to ask Professor Rowan more about Giratina." He got up with a frown. "I can't do anything for you right now, but how about you come back tomorrow or I can give you a call. That would be much easier, actually. You can all stay at Ash's house for now, I'm sure Delia would love to have more guests."

Ash's mother had the same name as his. Red's eyes widened a little bit and he averted them from their gaze. Blue frowned, noticing his reaction. "Ahh… do you think we could stay somewhere else, Gramps?" he asked. "At least, at Daisy's place or yours?"

The professor looked confused for a moment. "I don't have any extra rooms available, though. You'd be sleeping on cold floors. How come?"

Red frowned a little bit and his eyes refused to meet Professor Oak's especially. Ash was now even more confused and looked at his counterpart. Why would he be so afraid to meet his—their mother? Essentially, they were the same person right? All that power that he had sensed from him went away in a flash, emotions were rolling over themselves and he was trying as best as he could to hide them, even going so much as to pulling the cap a little over his eyes. "Because he hasn't seen his mother in a little over five years, nor spoken with her and if with everything going on, maybe the shock would be too hard to handle."

Brock and Misty looked at each other with a little shock and Dawn looked up at Red. "Why haven't you seen your mom, Red?" she asked innocently, immediately reminding them of Platinum's innocent questions as well.

Red shook his head and Ash frowned again, but Red ignored him and looked up at the professor, nodding his head and walked out the door. Blue groaned. "There he goes again. Red, get your ass back here right this instant!" he snapped, running after Red like a worried babysitter. Dawn was shocked. Barely anyone she knew would swear at anyone, especially friends at each other!

Gold rubbed the back of his head as he watched his seniors run off as if it was a normal thing then looked at Ash. "Maybe Blue is going to convince Red to come with us. I'm sure they have their reasons for being all over the place but I say for now, we go meet your mom and have an awesome meal. I'm starving, after all." He rubbed his stomach. "Food sounds really good right now."

With the mention of food, Ash's stomach grumbled loudly. "Yea, let's get going. I'll come and visit my pokémon tomorrow Professor, is that okay?"

Professor Oak gave a hearty laugh. "Of course it is, Ash! You always need to keep bonds with your pokémon, every single one of them. Now run along now, I have work to do."

He ran outside and Pikachu blinked, seeing Blue talking to Red, most likely scolding him again, but then they turned to Ash and his friends. "We're coming too." Then he grinned. "And who knows, if your mom's lunch isn't ready yet, you can have an unofficial gym battle with me. If you can beat me, I'll even reward you with a badge."

The boy's eyes lit up. Clearly he loved battling, and he looked at his Pikachu. "That sounds good to me, right, buddy?"

"Pika!" Pikachu shot a little fist into the air proudly.

But Ash turned towards Blue and Red, rubbing his head. "But if you're Gary's counterpart, and you're a gym leader, are you a gym leader too, Red? What do you do?" he asked curiously and looked at his own counterpart, who gave a slight smirk but walked off silently. He huffed in annoyance. "Red! I want to battle you right now!" he shouted and Red stopped, looking at him, a dangerous light suddenly coming into his eyes.

Blue frowned. "I don't think you're ready for him, kid. If I—no, Lance can barely hold his own against him, then you have no chance."

The other four were confused. "Pika?"

"Lance…? What does Lance have to… do with… this…" Ash's eyes widened in realization, as did the others. _That's not possible! How? Why?!_

Red was a frickin' champion.

* * *

**Short chapter is short. Review/follow/favorite, pretty please.**


	6. Pallet Town, Kanto: VS Blue part 1

**Pallet Town, Kanto**

"You still want to battle him even though you know he's a champion?" Misty asked as she finished a glass of water and set it down onto the kitchen counter.

"Of course I do!" Ash smiled. "It's a challenge Pikachu and I will take!"

"Pika!"

In truth, Ash was nervous. He had challenged Red to a battle, and even though he had accepted, he made no move to even stay in the same room as his mother. "Do our moms look alike then? He keeps avoiding her like something's wrong," he stated as he glanced towards the living room, where he was sitting patiently, waiting for something it seemed.

"Well, if you didn't see your mom for five years, you'd probably be the same way, right?" Dawn looked at him. "I mean, whatever happened to him that made him stay away for that long, it must have been important right?"

Brock shrugged. "Who knows? None of them will tell, or maybe even Blue or Gold don't know. Red's the only one who does and he won't even say yes or no to gravy on the mashed potatoes." He helped Mr. Mime finish the dishes and sat down with Ash, Misty and Dawn at the empty table. Delia had already gone to bed, telling them not to stay up too late or make any loud noises and for Ash to remember to change his underwear.

Ash got up, soon going to Red. "Just a real quick battle, Red? One on one."

Red shook his head and looked at Blue, smiling a bit. "He means that I'm first, and if you can beat me then you can have a shot at him. Think of it as I'm all of the gyms in Kanto and he's the League, or a rite of passage. But, it's late and we should be getting to sleep."

Ash groaned loudly but Mr. Mime came up from behind and started to scold him for being up so late, acting just like his mother. As the household fell asleep, Red was outside in the backyard with Pikachu sitting on his stomach again happily. He heard the back door open and then close, but instead who he thought it was, he frowned when he noticed Ash's mother instead. "I'm not sure why you look like my son but I can tell you that I know you're avoiding something." She sat down beside him and looked up at the stars as well, ignoring the dew-covered grass. "Are you avoiding me for some reason? I look like your mother don't I?"

Red silently nodded once, sitting up as well. He could tell he had been outside for a long time, his back was wet from the dew on the grass but he didn't care.

Delia looked at him and smiled at him. "Well, I may not be your mother, but I can be your mother figure until you can get home, okay? No matter how long that is." She put an arm around his shoulders and pulled him into a hug and he hesitated for a few moments before hugging her back.

A wave of emotions suddenly kicked him in his shins and made his heart stop as his eyes became blurred. He didn't understand it, why was he crying? She wasn't his mother, but she certainly acted like her and they looked exactly the same. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he finally whispered and she seemed surprised he'd spoken, confused when he apologized repeatedly, but acted motherly as she rubbed her arm up and down his arm to comfort him. "I'm sorry…"

* * *

Ash, on the other hand, was still wide awake. He couldn't believe someone who was just like him from another dimension or something had come over and claimed that he was a champion in his world! Sure, he looked and sometimes acted scary, but Red seemed to be a good guy. But a question bothered him. Why was Red a champion and he was not? He had been to several different regions, caught all kinds of pokémon and even got into the top four, but also won the Orange Island League! He was the champion, and he beat the Battle Frontier!

He sat up, alerting Pikachu immediately. "Pika…?"

"It's all right, Pikachu, I'm just thinking. How come we aren't pokémon masters too? We work hard too, right?" He suddenly smiled, picking his friend up. "Let's get to sleep for now, tomorrow we'll prove to them that we're just as strong as any of them!"

When it was morning, Blue was sitting beside Red the next day as his Pikachu sat on his shoulder patiently, even though he was eyeing Brock's cooking. Gold was outside with Misty and Dawn, letting them admire his pokémon. "This is Toga, that's Typhlosion, Amper, Gira, Sudo and Azuma." He smiled as his Girafarig nudged his arm, urging him to pet it. "Gira's the attention-seeker, Typhlosion's my tank, Azuma's the cute one, and Toga, Sudo and Amper are playful."

Misty was fawning over the Azumarill, noting how well she was taken care of and how beautiful her fur was and all sorts of things. "How did you get her fur to be so bright?" she asked curiously while Azuma simply beamed with pride.

"Feed her. A lot. She also likes dry poffins, so that could also be a reason." He brushed Typhlosion's fur, much to his pleasure, and looked up, seeing Ash come outside. "Good morning, Ash. Hello, Pikachu."

"Pikachu!"

Ash smiled and looked at the six pokémon. "Are all of these yours?"

Gold nodded proudly. "Yep, all six of them. I have others, but they're in a box, in my own home at Professor Elm's place." He sighed sadly. "Well, I'm sure Mom isn't too worried about me. I've been hanging out in Kanto a lot recently, mostly between Mount Silver and Viridian City."

"What's up on Mount Silver?"

"Snow. Lots of snow." He shivered. "Blizzards, the weather changes every five minutes and on top of it, there are really strong wild pokémon out there that almost took out my entire team! And I wasn't even inside of the cave yet! And the cave is a very large maze, by the way. Very irritating if you get lost." Then he tapped his chin with the brush he was using on Typhlosion. "Come to think of it, there was a bird that lived on the bottom of the cave. I don't know what it was, but it looked almost like a Moltres, but before I could get a good look, it was gone. It was the only time I've ever seen it there so I don't think it's anywhere near the mountain anymore."

Dawn blinked. "So what were you doing up there if you didn't know about Moltres? Certainly can't be because of the nice weather, right?"

Gold smirked. "Nope. It was because I was trying to find Red. And when I did, we battled and I beat him." He scratched his chin, not noticing the girl's wide eyes and Ash's surprise. "But it was only by luck. The last one he used was Espeon, and even though she had used Morning Sun to heal herself to finish off Amper, clouds came in and covered the sun again, even if it was still snowing. She didn't heal as much as Red had hoped and I took the chance and Amper used Thunder, and that's that. If the clouds hadn't come to my air then he would've beaten me for sure." He sighed. "Professor Oak had asked me over the course of two years to try and convince him to come off of the mountain, and Blue wanted to come with me but he had responsibilities at the gym, and Green was off doing who knows what so he couldn't have her watch it for him."

"You still talk too much," Blue said as he walked past them.

"How long have you been listening?!"

"Long enough." Blue looked at Ash. "We going to battle or not? Breakfast won't be ready for a half hour or so, and that's plenty of time to have a battle."

Ash smiled. "You're on, Blue!" He darted to his feet, running after the gym leader.

Blue stood a ways away and took out a pokéball. "Hope you're ready, Ashy-boy!"

"Don't call me that! Gary calls me that and it's so annoying!" He looked at Pikachu. "You're up, pal!"

"Pika!" Pikachu jumped out onto the field, standing his ground as Blue threw his pokéball.

"Machamp!" The fighting type pounding its fists together and then with four long arms, glared at Pikachu, who stood his ground even though he looked a little nervous.

"We can do this, Pikachu, now use Thunderbolt!"

"Machamp, use Stone Edge and protect yourself!" Machamp obeyed and when the electricity subsided, Blue shouted, "Now use Superpower!"

As Machamp rushed forward towards Pikachu, Ash yelped. "Pikachu, use quick attack to get out of the way! Don't let it grab you!"

Pikachu dodged out of the way just in time, but Machamp spun around and took Pikachu by the tail, pulling him off of the ground and used its strongest attack against him. "Chaa!" he cried as he hit the ground, but he refused to give up, standing back up shakily.

Blue blinked. "Usually that attack would take out any pokémon in one hit, but I guess your Pikachu is something else," he said and smiled. "This'll be fun."

Ash grinned. "Pikachu and I have been through a lot, you can bet that we aren't even close to being done yet!"

Red watched the battle from on top of the roof, noting how Blue had gotten stronger but he was the only one who could see his worry from behind that smile Blue wore. It was a three versus three match, but Pikachu hadn't gone down with the strong fighting move. _I wonder who will win, my doppelganger or Blue?_ Then he blinked. _Actually, I'd be the doppelganger wouldn't I?_

Far above the eye could see was a Meowth-shaped balloon, with two humans in white Team Rocket outfits with binoculars on their faces to see the battle. "Pikachu's not looking so good against that Machamp," said the girl with violet hair.

"You're right, Jessie. But I see two twerps, don't you?" the boy said and Jessie blinked through the goggles.

"And what about the kid with the goggles?" Meowth asked, watching through his own pair of binoculars. "Ya think we can snatch Pikachu without being seen by so many people?"

"Of course we can, Meowth! We're Team Rocket and that name alone strikes fear into all who hears it!" Jessie shouted and Meowth looked unsure, turning back to the house.

"Oh, look! Pikachu didn't make it through that Bullet Punch… But that Machamp looks real tired too."

"I'm pretty sure we don't need a narrator for this, Meowth," James replied.

"Wobbuffet!"

* * *

**And so ends the sixth chapter. Jessie, James and Meowth would make awesome narrators, wouldn't they? :P Review/follow/favorite! DO IT! :D  
**


	7. Pallet Town, Kanto: VS Team Rocket

**Pallet Town, Kanto**

Ash sent out Infernape and Blue recalled Machamp, noticing how tired it looked. "And my next one will be Rhyperior!"

Red blinked. Rhyperior? What in the world was that giant thing? It looked almost like a Rhydon, but it was much bigger than any Rhydon he'd ever seen before. His pokédex wouldn't tell him what it was either, he figured it was because it was only the first model and it was designed specifically for Kanto pokémon. Gold climbed up onto the roof beside him, noticing his idol sitting there alone to watch the battle. "I can tell you have no idea what that is. That's Rhyperior, it's a ground and rock type. Here, this is what my pokédex says about it."

As Gold handed him the newer pokédex, Red saw that it fired Geodude from its hand. _"From holes in its palms, it fires out GEODUDE. Its carapace can withstand volcanic eruptions." How… interesting._ He handed the pokédex to him again and nodded in thanks. Then he blinked, looking up when a large metallic arm came down from a balloon, trying to make a grab for Pikachu that rested in Ash's arms. Ultimately, the electric mouse was snatched up despite Ash's attempts to pull him away. "Hey!" he shouted and Red stood up, along with Gold and hopped off of the roof with ease.

A set of three laughs came from above the cloud and a female shouted, "Prepare for trouble!"

Then the blue-haired boy yelled, "Make it double!"

"To protect the world from devastation!"

"To unite all peoples within our nation!"

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Jessie!"

"James!"

"Team Rocket blast off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now or prepare to fight!"

"Meowth, that's right!"

"Wobbuffet!"

Red blinked several times. Were these goofballs really Team Rocket? But seeing how Pikachu was unable to free itself, he sent out Charizard while Gold let Gira out. Blue clearly thought the same thing but he wasted not a second. "Rhyperior! Stone Edge!"

"Gira, use Psybeam!" Gold shouted.

Red thrust a fist forward, telling Charizard to retrieve Pikachu before it was harmed. As Charizard flew up, he reared his head back and a purplish light came, blasting at the clawed arm that held Pikachu, blasting it to thousands of tiny little pieces. "Hey, you twerp! That cost a lot of money to get!" Jessie shouted at him angrily even as Rhyperior's Stone Edge and Gira's Psybeam heat their balloon. The three Team Rocket members jumped out of the basket before they crashed and Jessie threw a pokéball. "Go, Seviper!"

"You too, Carnivine!" James cried and instead of the grass type flying for their opponents, it instead turned around and chomped onto James' head. "Eep! Not me, Carnivine! Them! Use Vine Whip!"

"Poison Tail!"

Ash had his Infernape use Mach Punch, sending Carnivine's whips away from Rhyperior. Red was starting to grow irritated with these goons, and annoyance was clear on Misty, Brock, Dawn and Ash's faces as well. To end the meaningless battle quickly, he stuck out his hand again, but only halfway with his fist closed. Charizard glanced at him and then turned towards the fallen balloon and Team Rocket. "Um… Nice Charizard, good Charizard," Meowth said nervously along with James. Charizard ignored him and the tail flame grew bigger, and finally released a powerful blast of fire towards them, sending them flying.

"Well. We tried. And failed. Again," James stated nonchalantly.

"We'll do better next time!" Jessie cried.

"You always say that," Meowth added.

"Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!" they said in unison before the disappeared.

Red frowned as he saw them disappear and then looked at Charizard, patting his shoulder before recalling him and looked at Ash's Pikachu, who was smiling happily as his trainer hugged him closely. "That wasn't a Flamethrower, was it, Red?" Misty asked and Red turned to look at her. "I've never seen anything that big before coming from even a Charizard!"

He smirked a little and Blue chuckled. "That wasn't Flamethrower, it was Blast Burn. It's a fire-type's most powerful move, along with Hydro Cannon for water and Frenzy Plant for grass types. All of his pokémon know them." Red shot his friend a glare, who ignored it, though he was smiling, presumably at his annoyance. "But now Rhyperior's tired and we're all hungry, so let's eat before we continue our battle, Ashy-boy."

"Stop calling me that!"

As they all headed inside, Gold returned Gira, smiling. "I remember that awful move, you took out Gira with one hit with a that blasted Blast Burn. Heh, see what I did there?" he said and nudged Red with his elbow.

"Oi vay," Blue mumbled, rubbing his face. "After breakfast, we should head down to Gramps' lab. He should have thought of something by now."

"He said he'd call us, so there's no need to be in a rush," Dawn replied and followed Blue inside.

"Unlike you, Dawn, I'm very anxious to know why we're even here. I'm sure you are too, and we need to look for our friends. We have no idea where they could be, they could be stuck in that black hole we came through for all I know!" Red and Gold's face fell a little bit, knowing that he was right.

"But… I'm pretty sure Silver is able to take care of himself no matter where they are or what's going on."

As they went inside, Delia had answered the phone and looked at the teenagers coming in. "Professor Oak is on the phone, he wants to speak with you three."

Gold, Blue and Red immediately went to the screen and Gold instantly asked, "Did you find anything yet, prof?"

"As a matter of fact I have," he replied and Gold grinned. "Similar holes to the ones you described are appearing everywhere, and Professor Birch from Hoenn says that he saw kids coming out of it and that one even looked like May!"

Gold blinked. "Who's May?"

"She is Norman's daughter, but he said that three kids appeared out of no where from above his lab. Sapphire, Pearl and Diamond is what they called themselves."

Red breathed a soft sigh of relief. At least they were safe.

"But what about the others? Have any other professors found anyone?" Blue asked eagerly but frowned a bit when Professor Oak shook his head.

"I'm sorry, but they haven't told me anything. Professor Rowan said that he has seen black holes as well, plus it definitely looks like Giratina's work like you had guessed."

The three young men were suddenly shoved to the side as Ash stuck his head in the screen. "Then how do we get back without Shaymin? Or the three lake guardians? Giratina might remember me!" he said and irritated, Blue shoved him back again. "Hey!"

"If you want to come with us, Ash, you need some serious training. I don't know why this place is more happy-go-lucky, but if you what been sucked up into our home, you'd see that there would be nothing to laugh about!"

"I'm not laughing, and I'm plenty strong!"

"Oh yea? So then why were you struggling against Machamp?"

"Why were you struggling against Pikachu?"

"Machamp didn't faint!"

"But it was really tired!"

"He's got you there, Blue," Gold interrupted.

"Boys, enough. Listen, I'll do more research but until then, I suggest you stay clear of any black holes for a while. I don't know if it'll return you three home and even if it does, Ash and the others could get pulled into it."

They said their good-byes afterwards and Ash rubbed his head, watching the three other-worlders. "I can help you guys find your friends if you like," he offered and smiled. "Three of your friends are in Hoenn, right? It'd be nice to see May and Max again. I think Max would love to be taught by you too, and I want to train with you guys and get stronger than anyone in the world!"

"Keep telling yourself that, kid," Blue said as he headed for the table to eat.

"I'm not a good teacher, but Red's an awesome teacher, even if he doesn't talk a lot," Gold said and grinned up at Red, who rolled his eyes. "We trained together when we didn't battle, he'd make Toga lose his fear of heights by having Charizard dangle me in the air by the ankle once. But that was after we almost lost his hat. He loves his hat, you know. His hat is his life. He should marry his hat."

Blue groaned and Red face-palmed. Misty and Dawn laughed while Ash grinned. "That sounds exactly like Ash, his hat is only off if Pikachu has it, or if he's asleep. Other than that, he chases those that have stolen his hat," Brock said and Ash glared.

"But Red never takes his hat off, I've always seen it on." He smiled despite Red's death glare. "He really should marry his hat."

After breakfast, they were all in the living room as Ash's Pikachu and Red's Pikachu decided they liked each other, zapping each other with playful bolts before wrestling roughly on the carpet. Red's Pikachu seemed to be a little bit smaller than his own, and there was a scar on his ear but it didn't seem to care or notice as it stood on top of Ash's victoriously before darting to Red, taking his hat as quickly as it could. Ash laughed. "Pikachu just wants to play, I think."

Which was odd. Pikachu never really wanted to play while they were on Mount Silver, nor any time during their journey. Perhaps it was because of this lighter atmosphere that made him playful, but he didn't mind about it, all he wanted was his hat back. So as Red chased the mouse around the area, Blue was looking at his pokédex. "Hoenn is a ways from here, but if we can take the train from Saffron City to Johto, then we should be able to surf and walk the rest of the way."

"But why not just take the boat?" Misty asked, blinking.

"Because we want to make sure our friends aren't stranded out there in the middle of no where," Gold replied for Blue, who nodded.

"That makes sense, so are all of us going?" Brock inquired, looking up as Red caught Pikachu and put his hat back on before coming to sit down with the rest of them again.

But when Red shook his head, Blue smiled. "Sorry, but even if you want to help us, I don't think you'd be a match for Giratina when the time came."

"Like you are? All by yourselves?" Dawn retorted instantly.

"No, not by ourselves. That's why we're going to find the others on our way to Hoenn."

"But even with ten of you, even more of us would be willing to help you. See? Here's four who are right now. I'm sure May and Max would love to help, so would Gary, I'm sure. Maybe even some of our other friends," Misty replied firmly.

Gold rubbed his head again. "I don't think there would be any stopping you from following us anyway. All right, I think that's okay." He smiled and gave them a thumbs-up while Red hesitated before he looked at Blue, who seemed to be undecided as well.

"If I can beat one of your pokémon, will you let us?" Ash asked stubbornly, looking at Red, staring him down until he finally gave in and nodded. He got up and Ash blinked. "R-right now?"

Red rose a brow, as if asking him, _Why not? It's as good a time as any._ He wanted to leave now, that much was obvious, as did Blue and Gold.

Ash followed him instantly and as soon as they were outside, he felt intimidated by Red's coolness he displayed on the other side of the battlefield, but Ash was surprised by Red's choice of pokémon. After expecting Charizard or Pikachu, as he had seen the past few times, a Blastoise stood in front of them, looking ready to fight immediately. "All right then, Torterra, I choose you!"

Torterra came out of its ball, giving a loud sound and as soon as the battle began, Blastoise's dual cannons lowered towards Torterra and fired.

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**Yea, I used Team Rocket's original motto 'cause that's the only one I know x3 And I'm not going to include anything from/related to Unova 'cause... I dunno. Maybe later on in the story, but not right now. Anyways, thanks for reading again! And, as usual, please review/follow/favorite!  
**


	8. Pallet Town, Kanto: VS Blastoise

**Pallet Town, Kanto**

Ash was surprised by the sudden blast of water aimed for Torterra. "Dodge it, Torterra! Then use Razor Leaf!" he shouted. Torterra avoided the strong attack just in time and as he fired the Razor Leaf, Blastoise's cannons released a powerful ice attack, but it aimed for the ground, creating a wall of ice for the leaves to hit harmlessly. The wall suddenly shattered when Blastoise fired another strong water attack towards Torterra, mixing it with the ice and hit it dead-on. "Torterra!"

"Terr…a…" Torterra muttered, trying to get back up but he seemed to be weak from the powerful attack.

"Water attacks shouldn't do that much damage to Torterra, though!" Dawn exclaimed.

"It's the power of a champion, to overcome all weaknesses and rise to the top," Brock replied just as Blastoise's cannons sent the blast of ice directly for Torterra now. "And I don't think that's Hydro Pump Blastoise is using. Remember when Blue said that all of Red's pokémon know their strongest type moves? I think it's Hydro Cannon, but I don't understand why Blastoise isn't getting tired yet."

Torterra was frozen in place and Ash tried to get it out before Red's pokémon blast it one more time with the Hydro Cannon, knocking it out as the ice broke.

Ash pouted a bit and returned Torterra then looked at Pikachu. Pikachu was still tired from his other match and he threw out another pokéball. "Gliscor, I choose you!"

Blue frowned, noting his poor choice. Gliscor was not only weak against water attacks, but it was also _very_ weak against ice. Why in Arceus would he choose it? Then he remembered: Red had beaten his Charizard during the champion match with his Venusaur. _Maybe Ash has something up his sleeve?_

"Gliscor, use Steel Wing! Be care of Blastoise's cannons!"

Red seemed to be puzzled as well but he shot his hand out, making Blastoise use Blizzard again to try and stop the ground/flying pokémon. Gliscor effectively avoided the Blizzard and rushed for Blastoise, but before hitting it, Blastoise grabbed its arms and lowered its cannons for a point-blank hit. "Gliscor, use Screech!"

Once it screeched, Blastoise let go to cover its ears and then cried out when Gliscor finally landed a hit. Red was frowning now, telling Ash that he was through with taking it easy. "I haven't seen that look on his face since I fought him the first time," Gold stated, sitting cross-legged on the grass, watching with high interest now. "Means he's finally taking the battle seriously, or he's just irritated. He gets that way a lot. Blue and Red are like non-identical twins."

"You never shut up, do you?" Blue asked while Gold grinned.

Red snapped his fingers and Blastoise raised its cannons into the air for Gliscor again, sending a powerful stream of water towards it. Gliscor was hit and immediately it was struggling to get back up. _How am I going to take down something that's so strong?_ Ash thought, growing frustrated. Blastoise's defense was immense, and with it being so strong, he had no idea how to take it down without all of his pokémon battling.

"Gliscor, use Sand Attack to blind it then go in for a Giga Impact!"

Red frowned, raising his hand and Blastoise tried sending a Blizzard towards Gliscor immediately before the sand flew up into a cloud around it. But when he smirked, Ash blinked, then yelped when a Blizzard shot up from the sand cloud towards Gliscor, which had been diving for Blastoise with blinding speed. "Scorrrrr!" Gliscor cried and hit the ground hard, not getting back up. When the sand cloud disappeared, Blastoise was standing there looking strong.

"What? But how did you see Gliscor?" Ash demanded and Red smirked a little bit.

"He trained on Mount Silver, Ash. It's always snowing there," Dawn replied. "They've overcome a lot of weaknesses, but be careful with who you choose next!"

"It would have otherwise been a good strategy though," Misty said to the spectators. "But Ash is struggling, and Blastoise looks like it isn't even getting tired."

Ash frowned as he recalled Gliscor. "Thanks, Gliscor." He looked at Pikachu, who seemed to be ready to go again. "You want to battle, Pikachu?"

"Cha!" Pikachu nodded, jumping off of his shoulder and onto the field, then stared down his opponent. "Pika!" he shouted as viscously as he could.

"Blast!"

"Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!"

Blastoise lowered its cannons and sent out a bright stream of bright silver light to meet Pikachu's powerful electric attack, resulting in a minor explosion instead. Pikachu tried again but Blastoise blocked it one more time. Red nodded once and Blastoise sent a strong beam towards Pikachu. "Dodge it, Pikachu use Agility to get close to Blastoise!"

Red rose his hand again, telling Blastoise to try and use Focus Blast again. As soon as Pikachu got close, Ash then shouted, "Volt Tackle!"

Blastoise fell when it was hit and once Pikachu jumped off, Blastoise seemed to be paralyzed, getting up with a struggle as small sparks came from its body. Both pokémon seemed to be tired now, but Blastoise lowered its cannons, sending out Hydro Cannon again while Pikachu met it with Thunderbolt. Pikachu was hit but Blastoise fell down out of exhaustion and Pikachu panted before Ash rushed to him. "Well I guess that settles it. We're going with you," Ash said proudly and picked up Pikachu as Red made sure Blastoise was all right before recalling it.

"You got lucky," Gold said in a sing-song voice. "If Blastoise hadn't used Hydro Cannon so much, then you would've been beaten. It did take out three of six pokémon, after all. And that isn't even his strongest."

"That's settled then, let's get going," Blue said and got up while Red nodded, following him. "We can stop in Viridian City to get your pokémon healed."

After Ash said good-bye to his mother, Red looked at Delia, who smiled at him and nodded. "You all be careful now! And remember to change your underwear every day, Ash!"

"Mom!"

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**Blastoise got tired. That's all. And remember kids, change your underwear every day! Please review/follow/favorite! **


	9. Viridian City, Kanto

**Viridian City, Kanto**

"And here you go, all of your pokémon are healed up," Viridian City's Nurse Joy said and handed Red, Ash and Blue's pokémon back to them. "Have a nice day!"

Brock and Gold were smiling. "She's pretty," Gold said.

"I know. All of the Nurse Joys are, especially the Saffron City Nurse Joy."

Gold nodded. "There's a lot of pretty girls in the world, and that one officer that stopped to say hi to Ash, Misty and Brock was cute too."

"Ahh, the wonders of Officer Jenny's hotness."

Misty came up from behind them, grabbing both of their ears in a painful pinch, dragging them off to the couch with everyone else. "If you two perverts are done, we have somewhere to be and only a little time to get there," she scolded and ignored their cries for her to let go.

Dawn was looking at a map on the table in front of them, blinking. "How come we don't just walk towards Johto through here?" She pointed towards the water route between New Bark Town and the Indigo Plateau.

"Because you have to go through a very complicated route, and I don't feel like fighting so many Tentacool," Blue said as he put the pokéballs back onto his waist. "Plus, Professor Elm is there and he hasn't said anything about any black holes, at least according to Gramps. Only Professor Birch and Professor Rowan have seen them. So if we take the long way around we can probably find someone, or at least I hope so."

Ash rubbed his head as he looked at their complicated route as Gold, Misty and Brock came, the two boys rubbing their ears. "Do you guys travel like this all the time?" he asked them.

Gold shrugged. "Well, I do between Kanto and Johto to go home to New Bark Town. It's a lot easier than walking. Toga can only fly so far before he gets tired." He looked up as Red came to them, frowning at their route as well. It would take them a while to get to Hoenn, that was for sure. He held up Charizard's pokéball, looking at the others as they all got up and headed towards the door. "If we fly we can miss stuff, and even Charizard can't fly with three people on his back for very long. It would probably take longer to fly with the frequent breaks we'll have to make."

"You act like you're his brother or something," Dawn stated as they walked out into the sunlight.

"How so?" he looked at her, confused.

"You know what he wants to say before anyone else does, for one. And two, you're really close to him."

"He's my idol is all. In our world, he's a pokémon master, but I guess he isn't really well known in Hoenn or Sinnoh, since Ruby, Sapphire, Platinum, Pearl and Diamond had no clue as to who he is at the lab. But I think Ruby chickened out before even saying hello, he gets intimidated easily."

Dawn giggled. They marched out of Viridian City and Red looked up at Mount Moon, then pointed to the pokémon center beside it. It was already dark, and venturing into a cave this late with so many nocturnal pokémon wasn't a great idea. Of course, he could handle himself, so could Blue and Gold, but he wasn't sure about the other four, but they looked exhausted anyway. "Why do you guys have to walk so fast?" Ash complained, Pikachu dragging himself beside him.

"Pika pi…"

But Gold looked just as tired as they did, but Red and Blue looked back at them, blinking. "Well maybe it's because the four of you are younger than us, but we were walking normally, you know," Blue replied.

"No you weren't!" Gold instantly retorted. "You guys were like… speed walking times a million!"

The seniors rolled their eyes and walked inside of the pokémon center, getting rooms for them. Two rooms with four beds each. As soon as Ash set his things down in his room, he gave a loud sound of relief, but the other three did as well while Pikachu simply flopped onto the floor. They looked at the door as Gold popped his head in. "Blue wants me to tell you that we're getting up early tomorrow, so eat now and get to sleep right after that. We want to be in Cerulean City by tomorrow night."

"Tomorrow night?!" Brock exclaimed.

"It takes at least two days to get through Mount Moon!" Misty added and Gold grinned.

"Just think of it as a challenge, I'm sure they know the mountain like the back of their hands."

Dawn and Brock looked at each other as Gold disappeared, leaving them alone. "If they keep going like this, my legs are going to fall off," Ash said and picked up Pikachu. "They should just walk like normal people."

"Well, I'm not hungry so I'm just going to get some sleep," Misty said and crawled into the lower bunk of a bed.

"Hey! I've already claimed this one!" Ash retorted.

"You aren't using it, so go use the top bunk," she simply replied, and Ash groaned before standing up and stretching.

"I'm going to get something to eat before I go to bed. Pikachu, you coming?" Pikachu nodded and hopped up onto his shoulder as he walked out. As he closed the door behind him, Red was coming out of his room as well, with his own Pikachu following behind him happily. "Are you getting food too, Red?" he asked and Red turned to look at him, nodding. His Pikachu looked at him curiously, tail swishing happily. "Your Pikachu looks really well cared for, just like mine, right?" Red nodded.

Ash's Pikachu looked at the other Pikachu, smiling. "Pika!"

"Pika, Pikachu!"

The two electric mice jumped off of their trainers and ran ahead of them as they walked towards the kitchen for food. "Hey Red? How come you don't talk?" Ash blurted as they waited for their food. Red seemed to be startled by the question, looking at him then frowned, shaking his head as he took his tray, going to a table. Ash blinked, watching him. _Was it something I said?_ He sat across the table from him and their Pikachu climbed up beside their respective trainers, while Red's Pikachu immediately took some of the food on Red's plate while Ash's Pikachu waited patiently.

Ash glanced outside and blinked. "Red, that looks like something you guys came out of," he said and pointed towards a hole in the sky, though it seemed harmless as it simply sat up there above the mountain. Red frowned deeply, watching it sit there before disappearing.

"That will happen more and more often, I'm afraid," Blue said and sat down beside Red. "Whatever is going on, we need to stop it before something bad really happens. Anything can happen, and if Team Rocket from our world comes here whether by accident or on purpose, then I want you and your friends to stay back." He looked up at Ash seriously just before he was about to retort. "I'm serious. Giovanni is powerful, and even though we've beaten him once, it was tough. He caught Mewtwo and used him against us you know. After Red had disappeared, he somehow managed to summon Deoxys as well."

"Deoxys and Mewtwo?"

Blue nodded. "But luckily we stopped him before he could do anymore damage. He kills pokémon if he considers them to be weak, and he isn't afraid to kill humans either. He tried killing me once, you know. I was helping Red take him down in Saffron City and I'm not really sure how the battle went, I was knocked out and when I woke up, Red told me that Giovanni tried killing me but he fled before he could do anything when police stormed the building."

Ash shuddered as he listened and Pikachu looked at Ash nervously. Their world sounded dark and violent, something he was glad his home never really had to deal with. They ate the rest of dinner in silence, and once Ash left to his room, Blue looked at Red.

"So you never did tell me why you left in the first place. It wasn't just to train, now was it?" He sat across the table from him now and Red frowned, picking at the last few bits on his plate. "Red. What happened?"

"Pika pi," Pikachu said and climbed onto Red's lap, looking up at him.

"…It's none of your business," Red finally said and got up, leaving his tray there and picked up Pikachu, heading for their room again but he was stopped when Blue grabbed his shoulder.

"You can't hide a secret for forever. I hope for your sake that you do tell in time, before it comes to backfire and hurt you somehow." Red frowned and shrugged his hand off, disappearing down the hall. Blue watched and scoffed. "Tch. Stubborn bastard."

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**Thanks for reading! Please review/follow/favorite! -insert witty comment here-  
**


	10. Mount Moon, Kanto

**Mount Moon, Kanto**

Blue promptly woke the younger members of the group at exactly six in the morning. Ash was the last to wake up alongside Pikachu, they were still tired from the day before and that horrible run through Viridian and Pewter City. Dawn had horrible bed-head and insisted on fixing it before they would go anywhere, leaving Blue frustrated when they were all waiting for her by six-thirty after they had eaten breakfast. "And for once I wasn't waiting on Red," he mumbled under his breath and Red shot him a glare as Gold snickered.

"You have to admit it, you are always late for everything," he told the ex-champion. When they finally left, Blue was once again leading the group with Red right beside him. They were in Mount Moon's maze in no time, ignoring most of the wild pokémon around the area.

"It's starting to get dark in here," Misty stated.

"Way to state the obvious," Blue mumbled.

There was a bright flash of light and the sound of a pokéball being opened and Brock looked at Red, then down when he spotted Espeon. The gem on her head started glowing brightly and walked in between Red and Blue. "Well that's convenient," Dawn added and Ash nodded in agreement. He was still curious as to why Red never spoke, but he knew he could say things without speaking to anyone he wanted and most would understand. But for hours they walked and when they finally stopped, Red had flopped onto the ground to rest his aching legs and breathed hard just like the others. Espeon made a sound and he looked at her with a smile, scratching her fur.

"We're almost halfway there. If we keep this up, we'll be in Cerulean City by dinner," Blue said, drinking some water from a bottle.

"Man, when you guys want to go somewhere you _go_," Gold stated, sitting up again and rubbed his calves. "I know that I'm going to enjoy this train ride. How long is it until we reach Saffron through Cerulean?"

"Not even a day, it's only a few miles since there are four cities connected by Saffron: Celadon City, Cerulean City, Vermillion City and a little bit farther away is Lavender Town," Brock answered, looking up at the others. "If we continue this crazy pace we're at then we'll be on the train in only two or three days."

"This pace isn't crazy, we just want to be somewhere really, really fast." Blue got up after only a few mere moments. Ash could've sworn he heard a quiet complaining groan from Red but he got up despite his aching legs. "Come on, let's get going. We've wasted enough time already."

Ash got up along with the rest of them and followed Blue and Espeon through the caves. "Shouldn't we at least stop for lunch?" he asked and Blue scowled.

"Stop complaining and let's just go. You can eat along the way." Gold sighed and Dawn started whining about how much her legs were tired and hurt. "I told you I wanted to be out of this mountain by tonight, and we're almost there. So just shut it and keep going. If you want to keep complaining, you can turn around. Not you, Gold." He yanked the Johto boy's collar back just as he spun around.

"Don't you think you're being a little harsh, Blue? Look, Espeon is getting tired, and so are the rest of us. Let's just stop for a few hours and then keep going," Misty said with a frown.

Espeon was panting by now, the light having grown dimmer with each passing hour as her exhaustion grew. Red looked at Blue when he stopped and finally groaned. "Okay, okay, fine. As long as it stops all of you from whining the entire time."

Grateful, the younger members of the group instantly fell to their bottoms. Pikachu rested his head on Ash's leg. "Pika pi…"

"Yea, I know you're tired, Pikachu. So are the rest of us," Ash replied as Blue looked at Red.

"I'm going to go see if I can find any wood. You stay here and don't run off!" he stated and Red looked irritated immediately, crossing his arms across his chest as he sat down, letting Espeon lay down beside him gratefully. They seemed like they were having a conversation as Espeon seemed to slowly get happier and Red managed a smile as well, scratching her fur just behind her ears.

"I've heard when psychic pokémon completely trust their trainer, they can speak to each other telepathically," Brock said and Gold blinked, glancing at Red and Espeon, who both looked at Brock with their own confused look. "Am I right?"

Finally Red nodded and looked at Espeon again, who looked up at him. _"When are we going to get going again, Red? I am exhausted and I hate this dark cave. This is more for an Umbreon,"_ she told him and licked his hand.

"_We'll get out when we get out, I promise."_ He sympathized with her, he knew she preferred bright sunny days compared to dark places.

After a while of simply sitting down and relaxing, he was grateful that his feet started to have some feeling in them again and looked up as Blue returned, sitting down across from him. "There's only a bunch of Zubat in here. They don't seem to care that we're here at all," he said, but he sounded grateful to sit as well. "We might as well stay here for the night. Tomorrow we will reach Cerulean City and Saffron City. By the time we reach Saffron, it will be dark so we will need to stay there for the night."

Ash smiled. "Then it's on our way to Goldenrod City!" he cried happily.

"And Mary," Gold added, grinning.

"You mean that radio lady? Is she really that pretty?" Brock asked immediately.

"Of course she is!"

Misty groaned. "One Brock was bad enough but now there's two of you?"

"I don't think I look anything like Brock, thank you very much."

"Oi vay," Dawn said.

Eventually, Misty, Gold, Brock and Dawn had all fallen asleep while Ash was almost there, but he opened his eyes a little bit when he heard voices. Their small campfire had long since died out, but he was wondering why Blue and Red were still awake. "You remember when we went through Mount Moon the first time? Team Rocket was here and I remember you getting rid of them before going onto the gym," Blue said quietly, not wanting to wake anyone up. He then looked at Red. "Do you think that maybe Giovanni is somehow doing this?"

Red frowned, looking at his knees. He had no clue if any of this was Team Rocket's doing but then his eyes widened and he looked at Blue sharply.

"Thinking the same thing I am. If Team Rocket sent us here, then clearly they wanted us out of the way for something. They knew if they got rid of the pokédex holders then Kanto would be theirs for the taking. The elite four and Lance are strong, but they would be way out numbered." Blue frowned. "But if they have nothing to do with this, we have to find out what is." He paused, seeing Dawn stir but went still again. "They have no need to learn what Giovanni can do in person, you and I should know that the best."

Red's eyes widened a little bit and he looked away, and Blue blinked at the reaction and finally grinned. "Well that's one part of your secret isn't it? Something to do with Team Rocket. They did something to you, didn't they? Or maybe to one of your pokémon?"

He glared in response. "Like I said before, that is none of your business," he retorted and laid down, setting his head on his backpack.

Ash was surprised, hearing Red's voice for the first time had him confused. He sounded angry, but he heard pain in his words. He closed his eyes again. Gold had said that Red was gone for five years, and for three of them, no one knew if he was alive or dead. Whatever had happened, he didn't want to talk about it and he was sure that he wanted Blue to stop badgering him about it. Silence followed the conversation and he finally figured out they weren't going to talk again and decided to fall asleep soon enough.

He awoke when Blue cursed loudly, something he knew his mother would hear and wash his mouth out with soap with! Ash and the others woke up. "That Arceus damned son of a—"

"Blue, what's going on?" Gold asked groggily, rubbing his eyes as he sat up.

"That idiot Red ran off when we were sleeping! I knew I should've stayed up! He does this all the time! Even when we were kids, he would do this to me and I wouldn't see him until the next time we got into some sort of trouble!" Blue retorted angrily and his colorful cursing began again. Dawn seemed to be too shocked to hear all of the curses in one steady stream to pay attention to hear the small story. Blue threw a pokéball. "Arcanine, ExtremeSpeed! Go find Red and bring that stupid ass back!"

Arcanine obeyed, and Ash frowned, watching the large dog run off. "Blue, maybe you should let up off of him a little," he said and Blue looked at him.

"What are you talking about?"

"You know what I'm talking about! I heard you two talking last night! Well, mainly you, but you keep hounding him about some secret he clearly doesn't want to share and maybe that's what made him run off!"

Blue narrowed his eyes. "Red wouldn't run away for some childish thing like that, Ashy-boy. Besides, even if we don't find him, he'll be heading for the same place as we are, which is Hoenn."

"Wait, Red actually talks?" Brock asked and Blue ignored him.

"Let's just get out of these caves, we're all awake now, so come on. Arcanine will have reached the outside world by now." Blue led the way again, letting Ash's Pikachu use Iron Tail to light the area. It wasn't much light, but it was enough to watch for rocks big enough to trip themselves.

Finally they saw sunlight and Misty looked relieved. "Thank goodness, we're almost out of here," she said and started to walk a little bit faster.

Gold seemed to be eager to get out as well but he started running when there was a loud sound, as if something had exploded. "Niiine!" Arcanine cried, being flown back and hit the ground.

"Arcanine!" Blue shouted and ran to his beloved fire-type. "Arcanine, what happened?"

Ash looked up in alarm when there was another explosion. Gold rushed ahead, pokéball in hand and once he was outside of the cave, he covered his eyes to shield his eyes from the light. "Red!" he cried, seeing him bounce from the ground after being blasted back by something alongside Blastoise. Red looked up but gave him a look to tell him to stay put, and then glared at his opponent, getting back up and wiped blood off of his split lip. A Nidoking was there and it roared, rearing its head back as it charged another Sludge Wave.

Red stuck his hand out again and Blastoise fired a Hydro Cannon. "A Nidoking? What is it doing here?!" Brock exclaimed.

"This is a trainer's pokémon, and clearly it was sent here to attack us," Blue said and threw another pokéball. "Pidgeot, Air Slash, now!"

Misty also threw a pokéball. "Gyarados, Hydro Pump!"

Blastoise's Hydro Cannon met with Nidoking's Sludge Wave, but it didn't notice the other two attacks until it was too late, sending it crashing to the ground. Taking the chance, Blastoise fired another Hydro Cannon and finally Nidoking collapsed, staying on the ground. "Red, are you all right?" Brock asked, going to him and Red nodded, wiping his lip again but he was glaring at the Nidoking. "You know who that Nidoking belongs to, don't you?"

"All too well," Gold replied with his own frown.

"It belongs to Giovanni. This is why you ran off, huh, Red?" Blue asked and looked at the other teenager, who nodded. "Well, it's a good thing you saw it coming. This means our Giovanni is here and he knows where we are. If Red hadn't run off, then Nidoking could have used Earth Power and made the cave collapsed on itself and us." He looked at Red. "I called you an idiot, by the way. And you really are. You didn't even bother waking us up to help you." Red simply smiled, shrugging as he recalled Blastoise.

Gold smiled. "Maybe there wasn't time. Anyway, Nidoking is down, but where is Giovanni?"

"Let's not waste any time finding out, let's get out of here before he decides to show up himself," Dawn said nervously and Red frowned, knowing that they needed to get their younger counterparts to safety and nodded to Blue.

After they had run off, Nidoking was returned into its pokéball. Giovanni frowned, putting it into his pocket. "Well, this is an unexpected surprise." He held his other hand in a tight fist. "You decided to interfere again, you will pay. You and Blue. Damned kids."

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**Giovanni isn't really a happy guy ever, is he? So yea, thanks for reviewing! So follow/favorite and all that jazz! :)  
**


	11. Cerulean City, Kanto

**Cerulean City, Kanto**

_He heard the cry of a pokémon from not too far away. The others hadn't heard it and so Red stood up and ran for the exit with Espeon leading the way. It was the familiar cry of a Nidoking and a powerful one at that. One look at it and he knew it was Giovanni's Nidoking. It seemed to be startled when he had run outside and threw a pokéball, releasing Blastoise as well. With two silent commands, Espeon used Psychic and Blastoise used Hydro Cannon immediately._

_It was clear that its intent was to try and bury them alive, and yet it seemed to shrug off Blastoise's attack when it used Earth Power against Espeon. With a cry, she was blasted backwards and with how tired she had been before, fainted almost immediately. Red cursed mentally, returning her and looked at Nidoking again, thrusting a hand forward. Blastoise attacked it again with a Blizzard and hit Nidoking dead-on. It cried out with pain and roared, sending a Sludge Wave towards them both._

_Blastoise immediately dodge the attack and stood in front of Red, blocking another attack that had been aimed for his trainer but stumbled a bit, causing Red's chin to hit Blastoise's shell and bite his lip hard. He winced and felt blood from the split lip, but didn't care when he gave another command to use Flash Cannon. He then heard a growl and looked over, seeing Arcanine escape from the cave mouth and ran towards them, snarling at the Nidoking as well._

_Means Blue was looking for him. He smiled a little to himself. He was such a worry-wart, but he was glad Arcanine was here, he could use help against Nidoking, even if there was only one. Giovanni had been training, he wasn't always this tough to defeat. But when he wasn't looking, the Nidoking took the chance to send Earth Power towards the three of them and while he and Blastoise were flown backwards, Arcanine had flown back inside of the cave. He heard Blue's shout for his pokémon and he got up, only to be blasted back again. Gold appeared just as he saw stars in front of him as he hit the ground the second time and got up, wiping his mouth again._

_They were still in danger! He felt like he was the only one who heard a cruel laugh but it disappeared just as fast as it had come and he continued the battle, happy to see Gyarados and Pidgeot come out of the cave and to his aid._

The battle played itself over and over in Red's mind as they walked away from the destroyed field, he was sore all over and he knew there was a tear somewhere in his over shirt. He was sitting down in the lobby of Cerulean City's pokécenter with the others, rubbing his temples with his hands, staring down at them once he removed them from his head.

He had been so sure that Giovanni would have quit with Team Rocket! Wasn't he the one who said he was going to disband it and continue his life as a regular trainer? Well, he guessed criminals never would change, and lying was what he did best.

As the rest of the group waited for their pokémon to be healed, Ash fidgeted nervously. "So… How did Giovanni find you guys?" he asked while Pikachu munched on some pokéfood happily.

"Who knows? But now I doubt that Giratina would be doing all of this on purpose. Perhaps Team Rocket found some way to control it and knowing Giovanni, he would be trying to take over Kanto," Blue replied with a frown.

"Then we have to stop him too!"

"Thanks for that, Captain Obvious."

Ash glared and looked at Red, noticing how nervous he looked. "Red? What's wrong?"

He looked up and then frowned again, glancing outside, shaking his head. "He's worried about Giovanni is all, he rubs his head when he's nervous or anxious," Gold stated simply. "He was having a hard time against Nidoking, and you never really had that much trouble the first time, did you?"

Red shook his head but Brock was rubbing his chin and watched them. "Red, you should take it easy, you could have a concussion from falling that hard." Red scowled a bit. He didn't need to be checked up, they needed to find Giovanni, their friends and get back home. He looked up towards the front counter when his name was called along with Misty and Blue to retrieve their pokémon.

Ash seemed to be troubled as well. With all the sudden fuss about Team Rocket, he wasn't sure if he wanted to get tangled up in it, but maybe it was already too late. He was with people from a different dimension, for Arceus' sake! One was always depressed, another was constantly talking about girls and the last one was a Gary look-alike, which was bad enough. To make matters worse, he was still a regular trainer while his doppelganger was a champion and from what he heard, he overthrew Team Rocket alongside Blue!

He sighed and Pikachu looked up at him then tilted his head. "Pika?"

"We'll be okay, Pikachu, I promise." He smiled and stood up, heading outside with the others. "How fast are we going to walk to Saffron City?"

"The same speed. If we get there early enough, we could probably buy tickets at the station tonight and leave tomorrow morning," Blue replied.

Gold's pokégear suddenly started ringing and after he pulled it out of his pocket, he glanced at it. "Y'ello?"

"Finally we reached you, Gold! Where in the world are you guys? We've been looking for you everywhere!" Crystal's voice shouted, making Gold tear the pokégear from his face.

"Oi, watch with the yelling!" he shouted right back. Ash looked at Gold, surprised at the sudden shouting from the pokégear, in and out. The others stopped, looking at Gold and his pokégear.

"Well if you had picked up days ago I wouldn't be yelling at you!"

Gold blinked at the tone of Super Serious Gal's voice. She sounded like she was crying. "Ahh… Crys? You okay?"

"No, I'm not okay, I thought something bad really happened to you! Now where in the world are you? I'm with Platinum, and she says we're somewhere up in Sinnoh. Silver _is_ with you, isn't he?"

Gold frowned at the news. "No, it's me, Red and Blue. But we made some friends here and they're helping us get to Hoenn. Professor Birch says he saw Sapphire, Diamond and Pearl there."

"Then this means Silver and Ruby are together," Blue said and rubbed his chin. "Arceus help Ruby. He's with a kid more serious than Red is. And Ruby… well, he's just Ruby."

"Is that even possible?" Ash blurted and Red face-palmed, looking back at Gold's pokégear when Crystal started talking again.

"Listen, we've seen some guys running around that look an awful lot like Team Rocket grunts. Right before we see them, we see those holes up in the sky—"

"But I don't think it's Giratina's doing, Giratina is the lord of the Distortion World, not traveling between different worlds," Platinum's voice interrupted. "Does anyone care to take a gander as to who controls the space realm?"

"Palkia," Ash said immediately. Who could forget that raging battle with Palkia, Darkrai and Dialga and how the city would've disappeared if they hadn't played that song?

"Correct. If Palkia is the one that is up to this, then it will only be a matter of time before Giratina really is involved. Crystal and I are going to stay in Sinnoh and head for Celestic Town and look for any clues about Palkia and dimensional travel."

There was a shuffling sound as if the pokégear was being handed back to Crystal. "Meanwhile, you guys should go look for Silver and Ruby. I've tried calling Silver and he isn't answering, and Platina's tried calling Dia and Pearl, but they aren't picking up either. Maybe they're too far away for us to reach, so you should all give it a try. When we find something out, we'll let you know, got it? And Gold?"

"Yes, Crys?"

"Stay OUT of trouble! Understand?" she snapped. "Don't go anywhere near it! You got it!"

"What do you mean by that?!" he retorted and angrily hung up. "She's always up on my ass to stay out of trouble, you know. 'Don't do this' or 'Don't do that!'" he mocked, doing his best Crystal impression. "Arceus, she needs to back off sometimes."

Ash smiled as he listened. Gold talked about Crystal a lot and from the looks of things, an idea formed in his head and he grinned. "You have a crush on her, don't you Gold?" he taunted and Gold's face turned red, turning away and started walking instantly.

"No, I do not!" he retorted pointedly. "Who could like a girl like her? I mean, she's always complaining about something when we see each other!"

Brock snickered. "Sounds like love to me!"

"Would you guys shut up?" Blue interrupted, rubbing his face. "Or did you forget that Crystal and Platinum were relaying very, _very_ important information?"

Misty nodded. "He's right. They're in Sinnoh and they're safe. Once we reach Johto, maybe we'll be close enough for your pokégears to reach the others," she suggested. "Try calling them all then and if you still can't reach them then we'll have to look for them the hard way."

"That's the smartest thing anyone has ever said in this group today. Thank you, Misty. Red, you aren't helping with your pokégear turned off all the Arceus damned time and don't give me the excuse that you don't know how to turn it on, Gold showed you how."

Red scowled and looked at his pokégear, looking at the odd piece of technology. He wasn't one to really carry around anything except for the basic necessities and his pokémon. After all, you didn't need a telephone where it was snowing twenty-four-seven. Ash noticed this trouble and went to him. "You have to hold it down like this. See? And now it's on and you have a lot of missed calls and messages, better check them all, eh?"

"They could be secret love messages," Brock said, earning himself a hit to the back of the head from Misty.

Blue hesitated. "I think most of those are from Gold, Gramps and your mother." _And me._ "You don't have to listen to them if you want, they were all just trying to get you to come off of the stupid mountain and your self-imposed exile."

Ash blinked. _Uh-oh, here we go again,_ he thought. He could tell that Red didn't want to be lectured by Blue again simply by the way he held himself and how his eyes narrowed towards Blue.

"For someone claiming to be a champion, you aren't really strong when it comes to facing your own mother, now is it? Not a care in the world being up in that mountain, and you let everyone else feel the weight of a burden of a champion gone missing." Red had a hand in a fist, ready to punch Blue right in the jaw just to get him to shut up, and Blue seemed to sense it, smirking. "Feels like the day before we got our first pokémon, doesn't it? I remember Gramps had to separate us, but you know what else? You do need to get off of your stubborn ass and listen to me sometimes!"

Before the two big-shots could go at it, Ash and Brock stepped in between them. "Hey, why don't we get going now, we've stopped long enough, right?" Ash said nervously, making sure Red didn't take another step towards Blue, while Brock ensured Blue didn't simply pounce over them. Red ignored the two of them, as did Blue but he was the first to calm himself by turning away from them, starting to walk again. They still had a while to go and he was afraid that time wasn't on their side.

Ash looked at Pikachu then at the others. Gold seemed to want to stay out of his senior's arguments, but he sighed as soon as the rest of them followed. "They _are_ rivals, and opposites do repel each other," he stated.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" Blue snapped, looking at him and Red did as well, frowning but turned his head forward again, not wanting to even look at Blue now.

"Means that you two are best friends for a reason," Dawn said and Piplup nodded his head in agreement. "You two do argue a lot, I've noticed, and you both seem to agree on most things. There are times when I see that you both argue over the stupidest things and almost get into fist fights all the time. Kind of like Ash and I."

Ash scowled, but he said nothing, looking at Pikachu and picked him up, smiling a little. "Besides, friends don't want to scare each other off," he added and Red sighed, looking like his own anger had finally dissipated alongside Blue's.

"Fine, fine," Blue finally said. "I won't push you anymore, Red." The others smiled in relief, especially Gold, who gave the loudest sigh of the five. Blue looked at Red just as the crimson-eyed champion rose a brow. "But you're still an Arceus forsaken idiot."

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**I had completely forgotten about Dawn's Piplup until now . Anyway, t****hanks for the reviews! :D And if you haven't done so, favorite and follow! **


	12. Saffron City, Kanto

**Saffron City, Kanto**

Saffron City was still a lively place even in the middle of the night, full of very tall buildings and people running around, always in a hurry, but Dawn seemed to be excited anyway. It was her first time being there, and with so many shopping opportunities, she tried to take the chance but Misty held her back, telling her Celadon City had better shopping and that they would go together when all of this was over. Ash scowled slightly. "I better not be dragged into any girl shopping thing," he stated and crossed his arms across his chest.

"Who else is going to hold our bags except for you, Ash?" Misty asked and Pikachu was laughing happily.

Gold yawned. "I don't know about you though, I'm ready for some shut-eye. Let's just go to the pokémon center, Red and Blue are buying the tickets now before the booth closes and they'll be happy we got rooms," he said to the group.

Brock yawned as well. "I think the last time Ash, Misty and I came here, it took us a few days to just walk into the city. We should really tell everyone we got through Mount Moon and Cerulean City in less than three days plus we are a bigger group than normal." He smiled. "I can see it now! Hot women giving us trophies and putting garlands around us!" As he daydreamed, a sharp jab hit his lower back sent him crashing to the floor. "Maybe next time…"

"Croagunk," the poison pokémon said and dragged his poor trainer through the doors of the center.

Gold blinked as he watched the strange behavior. "Does it always do that?"

Dawn nodded. "All the time. Croagunk seems to know when Brock is thinking of women, and whenever he flirts with one where he has no chance, he drags Brock off somewhere else."

Ash looked at them. "But we should probably go inside before they wonder why a pokémon is dragging its trainer inside instead of being in its pokéball," he remarked and Pikachu blinked. Brock had recovered from the Poison Jab as soon as he saw Nurse Joy, but took extra caution not to flirt with her with Croagunk so close. "Nurse Joy, do you have any rooms available? We need two of them. Oh, and two of our friends aren't here right now, they're buying tickets for the train tomorrow to Johto."

"No problem at all," she said with a smile and turned towards a box on the wall, going through the keys hanging on them. "Ah, here we are. Rooms 304 and 305. Check out time is at nine a.m."

As she handed them the keys, Ash glanced at Pikachu when he saw his ears twitching as if he was listening to a sound. "Pikachu? What's up?"

"Pika." Pikachu glanced behind them and suddenly cried out, "Pikachu!" He hopped off of Ash's shoulder and Ash yelped.

"Pikachu, where are you going?"

"Pi, pikachu!" Pikachu ran through the door with Ash chasing right after him.

Pikachu stopped just outside of the door and pointed ahead of them as another Pikachu ran towards them. "Pika!" it greeted and waved while Pikachu smiled and cried his own greeting in return.

"Sparky, wait up!" A boy clad in a green outfit similar to Red's but when he saw Ash and Pikachu, a wide smile broke out on his face. "Ash!"

"Ritchie!" As the two greeted each other, Sparky and Pikachu climbed up to their respective trainer's shoulders. "What are you doing here?"

"The train for Johto doesn't leave until tomorrow morning and Sparky and I are going to stay the night at the pokémon center," Ritchie replied and Sparky nodded.

"Why are you going to Johto?" Ash looked behind when he saw Misty and Brock rush out as well.

"Because Sparky and I are going to challenge the Johto league. Why are you guys going to Johto?"

"It's a really long story," Misty replied and led the way inside. Gold had already gotten some dinner, looking up as the others came back inside.

"I think we have time for that."

"Time for what? Who're you?" Gold asked, watching as they sat down at the table as he ate.

Ritchie immediately didn't seem to like him, but he answered anyway, "My name's Ritchie and this is Sparky."

Gold blinked a few times. "…Sparky?" He thought it was a ridiculous name and he smiled, trying to hold back a laugh.

"Don't make fun of Sparky!"

"All I did was say his name!"

"And it sounded like you were going to laugh!"

Ash sighed and Misty whapped Gold on the head for him. "Ow! What was that for?!"

"Be nice, Gold!" she scolded.

He grumbled something under his breath and stuffed his mouth with rice.

"Anyway, he's from a different dimension," Dawn said nonchalantly. At Ritchie's confused look, she smiled. "I'm Dawn, by the way. And those black things that have been appearing all over the region also appeared in their world and took them here."

"Them?"

Ash nodded. "One even looks like me and another looks like Gary. It's really weird."

Ritchie looked at Gold. "Is there someone here that looks like you?"

Gold shrugged. "Maybe. I wouldn't be surprised at this point, there's another Misty and Brock in my home but they act completely different. My Brock doesn't go chasing after girls and Misty is usually at the gym, but she will help us whenever there's trouble. Oh, and half of the gym leaders of Kanto were part of Team Rocket. Sabrina, Lieutenant Surge, Koga and Giovanni. Sabrina, Surge and Koga all had a change of heart and now they're just gym leaders and Blue became the Viridian City gym leader after the Pokémon League and after Red beat Giovanni the first time and disappeared."

"Good know that we weren't part of Team Rocket," Misty said and smiled a bit.

Ash listened to the story, thinking now he was especially glad he didn't live in their world. Sabrina here was hard enough, even with Haunter to help him. He smiled at them and stood up. "I'm going to get some dinner, I'll be right back."

"I'm coming too!" Ritchie said and the two walked off.

"Always thinking with their stomachs," Misty said, rubbing her head.

As soon as Ash and Ritchie returned with their meals, Red and Blue came back but they didn't seem to care about the newcomer with them. "Here are your tickets. _Don't_ lose them," Blue said and handed all of them the train ticket for the next morning at ten. Ritchie couldn't help but to stare. They really did look like Ash and Gary. Finally Blue looked at Ritchie. "And who are you? I'm not buying you a ticket too, you know. I already spent too much money."

Ritchie scowled. _Are all people from their world this rude?_ "My name's Ritchie, and I already have my ticket, thank you very much."

"Ah. Well, I'm going to bed. You can actually sleep in until eight tomorrow." As Blue walked off with the key to 305, Red headed towards the kitchen to get some food along with Dawn, Misty and Brock.

"Sorry about them, they're just super serious all the time," Gold stated and finished the water, sighing. "They just really want to go home, and being here I think stressed them out. I'd like to go home too, but at least I know we won't be going back any time soon."

Ash looked at him. "Because of Team Rocket?" he asked as Pikachu tilted his head curiously at them.

"That and because they aren't used to being together all the time anymore. They were best friends before they started on their journey, and they still are, but they're rivals too."

Ritchie grinned. "Just like me and Ash!"

Gold nodded with his own smile and finally yawned loudly. "Anyway, I'm going to bed too. Good night, guys."

He got up and he was gone down the hall. The others returned with their dinner soon and Ash looked up. "Blue and Gold already went to bed, Blue didn't eat, but Gold seemed like he was inhaling his food rather than eating it," he said simply.

"Why are your names colors though?" Ritchie suddenly asked, and Dawn blinked.

"He does have a point. You're all named after colors," she said and Red shrugged as he started to eat.

Ritchie noticed that Red's eyes, however, weren't focused on his dinner or them, they were looking out the window and Ash followed his gaze, seeing another harmless black hole there and disappear as fast as it had appeared. Red was frowning and got up, leaving his half-finished meal there. "Red? Where are you going?" Ash asked, getting up to follow him. The quiet trainer didn't look at him, only going down the hall to where the rooms were instead. Ash huffed and sat back down. "He doesn't ever talk to us. I've only heard him say something once, and that was to Blue when they thought all of us were asleep in Mount Moon."

"I'm pretty sure he made a sound when he hit the ground when fighting that Nidoking," Brock added. "I know I would have, that looked like it hurt. He's lucky he came out of that battle with only a cut."

"Maybe battling in their world is different from battling here. When I battled Blue, it seemed to be the same, but we stopped half-way into the match because of Team Rocket, but I could tell when they were serious, they moved with their pokémon," Ash said, finishing his dinner.

"I didn't know you suddenly became so observant, Ash," Dawn teased, earning a glare from the boy.

"Well, when you fight alongside a gym leader and a champion, you have to learn their strategies. I doubt I could beat Blue's full team, let alone Red's. Which is why Pikachu and I need to get better and we all need to train harder."

"And when you start to work, let me know," Brock added.

"You guys are supposed to have faith in me and my battling abilities!"

"Yea, but sometimes you don't really work. And most of your gym badges were given to you," Misty replied and Ash sighed, giving up.

Ritchie scratched Sparky's head. "So… They're champions and gym leaders? No wonder they're so cocky."

"Red doesn't really show off, but Gold definitely does when he has the chance," Dawn said and looked at him. "Blue's kind of arrogant and is way over-confident in his abilities."

"Like you aren't?" Brock stated and smiled as Dawn scowled.

"I'm not over confident! I just know that my pokémon could beat yours any time!"

As the bickering continued, Ash yawned. "I think it's time to go to bed, though. I want to actually sleep tonight so good night, you guys." He left and after he entered the room, he left the door unlocked for the others to come in as well and climbed into a bed almost instantly. "Good night, Pikachu. Tomorrow we won't have to walk so fast anymore."

"Pikachu," the mouse replied happily, curling up beside his head. He was dimly aware of the others coming inside of the room and just after that, sleep claimed him like a prize.

In the room beside theirs, Gold was snoring into his pillow quietly, while Red was staring at the roof on the top part of the bunk-bed. "You can't sleep too?" Blue asked quietly and Red shook his head, looking down towards Blue's bed. Its inhabitant sighed softly, looking up at the roof. "Soon we'll see Sapphire, Diamond and Pearl. Wonder what Green or Yellow would say if they saw us traveling with kids. Green wouldn't ever be quiet about this and Yellow would be happy she wouldn't be the shortest person alive."

Red couldn't help but to smile slightly, turning his eyes back to the roof.

"I doubt I'll be able to sleep for a while so—" Red blinked and glanced at Blue when he heard him getting up. "—I'm going to go take a walk. I'll be back within an hour or so." He watched Blue head out and eventually fell asleep after more staring at the wall. The next thing he knew, Blue was shaking his shoulder roughly. "You are one of the laziest people ever, I swear," he stated and Red scowled, trying to pull the covers over his head again. "Nope, you need to get up. Everyone else is awake, even Ash is. It's almost nine, we have to go."

Red scowled at him, giving him a look that demanded him why they didn't wake him up earlier.

"You know, I tried. I figured you were just really tired. I even tried three different times, and no you decided to wake up. We're leaving, so hurry up and get your ass moving." Red yawned and finally rolled out of bed, pulling his shoes on.

As soon as he stepped into the lobby, Gold wouldn't stop teasing him and only stopped when Red hit his head when they were near the station. "Ow, Red! You hit harder than Misty and Crys do combined!"

"As long as it gets you to be quiet, then it's fine with me," Blue stated.

Ash snickered a bit. Once inside of the station, he handed his ticket to the attendant first. Pikachu started at the train with awe. "Pika…"

"How long will it take to reach Goldenrod City?" Ash asked curiously.

"Few hours, so make yourselves comfortable," Gold said and took a seat on a bench.

"Hard to do with these seats," Dawn grumbled and took a seat across from Ash.

"Stop whining, we're sitting down the entire time to Johto, so you'll be okay," Blue added. He looked at Red. "You should take this time to learn how to use technology, by the way. You never were good with computers and stuff like that. And if I remember correctly, I was the one who had to teach you how to use the PC system in Viridian City." Red scowled at Blue and Gold laughed.

"It is true, you're horrible when you try to use a pokégear," he added with a grin.

As Red rolled his eyes, Ritchie laughed with the others. "It isn't as bad as when we were little kids, he didn't know how to use a phone, or a television remote, basic things, even."

As Blue told embarrassing childhood stories, they didn't notice three odd people sitting in a bench near the end of the car. All three of them wore hats and sunglasses but one groaned. "Jessie, can't we at least get a better spot?" James complained. "These wooden seats hurt!"

"No because we need to keep an eye on those twerps!" she retorted and Meowth sighed with James. "Besides, the boss says that weird things have been going on, and usually when weird things happen, the twerps are caught in the middle."

"Maybe that's why there are two twerps with a really strong Pikachu," Meowth added.

"In any case, we need to snatch up our twerp's Pikachu for the boss. Imagine the promotion!"

The three of them instantly started to daydream happily. Unbeknownst to them, Red was keeping an eye on the three of them even as Blue berated him for being 'technologically challenged.' The three Team Rocket bozos had horrible disguises, but it seemed to easily fool the others. It made him wonder how observant all the others were, and also how many times Ash and his friends had been fooled by the three. Talking Meowths were one-in-a-kind plus, he had never seen a talking pokémon before, unless psychics counted.

However, he didn't want to cause a scene on a train. Perhaps when they stopped at Goldenrod City, he'd hand them over to the police. Soon he realized he had been so caught up in his thoughts, Ash was waving a hand over his eyes. "Kanto to Red, come in." Red blinked a few times and looked at them, smiling a little bit before nodding.

"When you're keeping an eye on someone, Red, doesn't mean stare them down until they see you watching them," Blue said simply, smiling. "I see them too, but none of us are going to be able to do anything in tight spot like this, so try to relax for once."

"Huh? See who?" Dawn asked and looked around curiously.

"Your Team Rocket stalkers. They aren't going to make a move on the train either, so all of us just have to wait until we get off of the train." Blue then smiled. "Did I tell you that I think our Misty has a crush on Red?"

Red sighed. This was going to be a long train ride.

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**Per usual, thanks for reading! They're finally leaving Kanto! Next up: Johto. Please favorite/follow/review! :D**


	13. Goldenrod City, Johto

**Goldenrod City, Johto**

The train kept going for hours and Red had grown frustrated with how long this was taking. He had never been to Johto before, other than Mount Silver, and even then, he was tired of travelling all over the place in such a short amount of time. They wouldn't be able to find Silver or Ruby if they kept at this pace, they would miss too many details. Gold was sitting anxiously with his pokégear, ready to punch Silver's number into it as soon as they reached Goldenrod City. As soon as the train went over what seemed to be the millionth bump, Red looked over at the three Team Rocket members. They had all fallen asleep and he sweat-dropped a little, getting up.

Ash looked up and watched as Red went to them and he blinked as he watched the Kanto champ wake them up. "What's he doing?" he asked and the others looked over. Blue groaned loudly. "What?"

"He's being a moronic idiot is what he's doing," he said.

Jessie and James immediately yelped when they saw Red standing over them. "Y-Yes?" Jessie asked nervously. Ash watched as Red leaned down to them, his mouth was moving but he couldn't hear what he was saying, only that Jessie, James and Meowth had lost their color in their faces within the first few words.

"Jessie?" James asked as he walked away.

"Yes, James?"

"He's scary!"

Blue rose a brow as Red sat back down. "What did you tell them?" Brock asked. "They seem even more scared, like an angry Garchomp was in front of them or something."

"Probably just told them to leave us alone, he has a way with words when he wants," Blue replied and Red just smirked a bit, nodding to confirm it.

Ritchie shuddered a little. James was right; Red was scary when he wanted to be. He looked up when it was announced Goldenrod City was just ahead and Gold smiled brightly. "Finally!" he shouted and looked outside expectantly as he saw the skyscrapers beginning to pass them.

Red couldn't help but to stare. Even Celadon City didn't have so many buildings! Blue seemed to notice and only smiled a bit at his rival's awe. "Been a long time since I've seen that look on your face," he said quietly and Red glanced at him, giving him a small smile before looking outside again.

"Ahh, gotta love Johto. Best place in the world," Gold said while Ritchie looked outside as well.

"Who's the gym leader here?" he asked, spotting the gym before the train finally started to slow down to a stop.

"Whitney. Her Miltank gave me problems but it was easy enough to defeat with Toga." He looked at the auburn-haired boy. "Do you have anyone strong enough to beat her? Johto badges aren't as easy as the Kanto league."

Blue immediately snorted. "I beg to differ!" he retorted.

"Kanto was easy peasy for me! Johto was so much harder!"

"It took you three tries to beat me for my badge!"

"Yea, well your team is overpowered!"

"Maybe you just need to train some more." He smiled. "I'll bet if you were to battle me again, you'd see what I am talking about."

As Gold tried to defend himself again, Ash smiled. "You remember Goldenrod City, right Pikachu?"

"Pika!" the mouse replied happily and nodded.

"She cried when I beat her," Gold stated all of a sudden, getting up as the train came to a stop, but his fingers were still tightly wrapped around his pokégear. As soon as they were off, however, he looked up at Red as he shot a glare at the three Team Rockets and watched as they ran off immediately. "Well whatever you said to them worked," he stated and punched in Silver's number.

He was frowning when it rang a few times but no one picked up. "Maybe he's too far away or something."

"Or maybe it broke when he fell or he lost it or he's just ignoring all calls for some reason," Misty said and glanced at Ash as he nodded in agreement. Blue was staring at a map while Red was raising a brow at Brock's urging for a young woman to go out with him again then rolled his eyes when Croagunk pulled him away again.

As they made their way out of the station, Gold eagerly led the way to the pokémon center, each person in the group looking tired from the train ride even though it was barely four in the afternoon. They got the keys to their rooms and set their things down gratefully. "Maybe we can do some shopping around here," Dawn said to them. "I've never been here before, and it looks like a great place to do so!"

Misty smiled. "I'll go with you then. Brock can come too and carry our things," she said and Ash sighed with relief, then glanced at Ritchie.

"Are you going to challenge the gym today?" he asked curiously and Ritchie shrugged.

"I don't know, Sparky and I might need to do some training. The way Gold said about Whitney's Miltank makes me a little worried we might not beat her the first time." He looked at the door with the others as Gold stood in the doorway.

"So, Blue's going over a map and he isn't talking. He's probably trying to figure out which way to go, so maybe we should go down and join him and give him ideas too," he said and waved as he left the doorway.

"You know, it isn't a bad idea if we at least listen to him. He seems to know exactly what he's doing," Misty said and led the way into the lobby after Gold.

Blue was sitting at a table with his maps sprawled out in front of him. The maps looked a bit different from Ash's, but the places were still the same. "Maybe we should take the long way, go down towards Azelea Town, all the way to Cherrygrove City and up to Blackthorn City," he muttered to himself, looking up only when he saw them sitting down with him. "But then who knows what will happen along the way, or maybe we should split up. Half of us take that route and the other half just make their way straight through Olivine and Cianwood." Red came beside him to look at the map and hesitated as he listened to Blue and finally glanced at him as the gym leader frowned at the map again as he traced his finger along it to show them the two different routes. "The half that takes the long way around Johto also takes the way through these parts separating Johto and Hoenn. The others can go through the sea and stop at the islands. Once they reach Dewford Town in Hoenn, they can go straight to Professor Birch's lab and stay there until the rest of us get there as well."

"So… we have to split up? We can't stay together?" Ash asked and looked up at him.

"It would be better to stay together, yes, but it will take much longer if we did that. If we split up here in Goldenrod, then we'll be meeting at the lab at approximately the same time. Plus, we don't know how many more of those black holes will appear over time, and we need to hurry and get to Sinnoh after we find Ruby and Silver. I would imagine we need to go to Spear Pillar and have Palkia or Giratina get us back home."

"Not to mention our Team Rocket is out there," Gold said seriously and frowned. "Who knows what they're doing with anything right now, but we need to get them back to our world."

He glanced at the others as they looked at each other nervously. "Red and I will be in different groups, you will be safe as long as one of us is around," Blue added.

Gold shot a hand into the air. "I'm with Red!" he shouted immediately.

"Not surprised at all." He then turned to Ritchie. "If you're going to stay with us, and challenge the Johto league at the same time, then you'd best go with the group taking the long way around."

Ritchie shook his head. "I wasn't really planning on joining you guys though. And I was going to stay here in Goldenrod City for a few days to train, so sorry."

Ash immediately felt sad that his friend wasn't coming, but he smiled anyway. "Well, good luck with your gym battles."

Red rubbed his head, not liking the idea of splitting up at all. Blue and Gold could both handle themselves, he wasn't worried about them, but he wasn't sure about the others. The Team Rocket he knew would kill them fast than they could blink. "I was thinking I can be in one group and you and Gold can be in the other," Blue said and looked up at Red. "We are the strongest three here, and if anything happened, I wouldn't be worried about you guys because you would be with them."

_It's like he can read my mind or something,_ Red thought and smiled slightly, nodding.

"Since you're Red's twin or something, you go with him," he then said to Ash. "You, Gold, Brock and Misty can go with either of us. Preferably Misty with Red, Gold and Ash while Brock and Dawn with me."

The four friends looked at each other and then smiled sadly, and finally gave determined looks towards Blue. "You got it," Brock said.

"Pika!"

"We can take the long way around, you four can go through the ocean and islands," Misty added. "Besides, I doubt Red has even been through any of these towns, right?" Red's face flushed a little and he shook his head. Stepping outside of Kanto was the thing he had never done.

"Then it's Gold's grand tour of the lovely Johto region!"

As night began to fall, Red looked up as Blue came inside with Gold. "Well. We won't see each other for a while, but my number is stored into your pokégear. Answer it when I call," he added firmly, jabbing a finger at him.

Red scowled at him. Of course he'd pick up, if they were going to be separated for a long time, why wouldn't he?

"I was going to call Sapphire, Pearl and Diamond and see if any of them will answer and try to get them to start searching Hoenn for Silver and Ruby," Gold then said, pulling out his pokégear again, scrolling through the list of contacts. "I already reached Crys; she said she and Platinum will look around Sinnoh."

He nodded and Blue sat down on one of the beds. "So. All of us just needs to make sure Team Rocket doesn't succeed in whatever they're trying to do and not die in the process."

Gold shuddered. "I'll try not to, besides, I'm too young to die."

"They'll probably try and kill you if they catch you, you know. You did shut them down two years ago, and Red stopped them five years ago. Both of you will be in danger."

"But so will you since you helped Red at the Silph Co. building right?"

Blue snorted. "All I did was get my ass handed to me by Giovanni." He sighed. "Let's just get some sleep. All of us will have a long day ahead." He was already taking his shoes off.

"You should probably eat dinner though, this would be the second time in a row."

"I'm not hungry."

"Maybe you're nervous is all."

"Don't you ever shut up?"

* * *

**So from here on out, the chapters will be going back and forth between the two different groups. Don't worry, Ritchie fans, he'll be back, he's my favorite side character in the anime from what I remember, lol. :P Here are the list of the two groups that will eventually begin to grow:  
**

**Blue, Brock, Dawn**

**Red, Gold, Ash, Misty**

**I don't remember too much of the Johto anime, so I have to either re-watch it or just read about it and other anime characters (most likely the latter). I'll at least try and get more of Ash's rivals in there, I really want to start writing about Gary, but he won't be there till I decide to write about the Sinnoh duo, lol. That's also when I really have to hunker down and research Sinnoh mythology/story stuff, I'm just glancing over everything now. Or what might be easier for me is to just play Platinum again :3**

**Remember to favorite/follow/review!  
**

**Nimondor out!**


	14. Ilex Forest, Johto

**Ilex Forest, Johto**

Ash and his friends didn't want to part with each other. Ritchie had already left to train his pokémon, even with the short amount of time they were together, he promised they would meet again soon. Misty and Ash glanced at Dawn and Brock. "So… this is the day, huh?" Ash said with a sad smile.

Brock nodded silently while Dawn said nothing.

"Why are you all so full of doom and gloom?" Gold asked from the hall and approached the group. His backpack was already strapped on and immediately Ash noticed Red and Blue hadn't come out of their room yet. "Lighten up, it's only for a month or two. Besides, we have Mr. Serious-And-Not-Talkative," he added and pointed to himself then Ash and Misty.

"Better than being talkative all the time," Misty retorted. Gold only grinned at her while Dawn giggled.

"See? Besides, we have Red's number, so if it rings, one of us can pick it up. I doubt he even knows how to answer it. I tried teaching him, but he mostly ignores it anyway."

"Maybe I should carry it then," Ash replied.

"Not a bad idea, as long as you answer it when it rings." He looked at the hall as Red and Blue finally joined them. Red had a map in his hand but he stuffed it into his pocket, still just as silent as ever.

"Are we all ready?" Blue asked and they nodded.

Ash and Misty looked at Brock and Dawn, smiling one last time at each other. "We'll see you all in Hoenn, then," Dawn said with a smile.

As Blue walked off, Dawn and Brock followed while Red frowned at Blue's back and finally turned around the other way to head out of the city. "Hey, wait up!" Ash shouted and ran after him. Gold walked beside Red down the street. "Do you think we could stop and say hi to Whitney?"

Red frowned and shook his head, putting his hands into his jacket pockets as they walked. They were running against time and he wanted to stop by a gym to say hello to the leader? _Even I wouldn't say hi to our leaders._ Gold pouted a little. "Ah, well, maybe she wouldn't remember you anyway, you were just a challenger, right?" he said and smiled. "I doubt she would remember you, she probably has had thousands of challengers since you."

"Oh yea? We helped protect her uncle's farm from Team Rocket!"

"Those three bozos couldn't even tell left from right!"

Red had to agree with Gold on this one and looked at Ash and Misty.

Gold continued. "Honestly, how could you guys not see that it was Team Rocket sitting on those benches over there? There was a talking Meowth, for Arceus sake!"

"You don't need to swear so much," Misty mumbled. "Besides, we take care of ourselves from them all the time! And they always shout when we beat them, 'We're blasting off again!'"

Red sighed, shaking his head. Why did Blue have to stick these two in the same group? Not even five minutes in and he was already thoroughly annoyed. As soon as they were out of town and looking up at a dark and dank forest, Ash shuddered. "I always get lost in forests, and Ilex Forest is no exception."

Gold grinned. "That's why you guys have me, now let's go. Azelea Town isn't too far away."

"Somehow I doubt you would even remember the way through here."

"I've been here loads of times. Granted, ours is a bit thicker of a forest than this one."

"Which means you'll get lost," Misty added and Gold scowled.

"I don't get lost in Johto, ever!"

"Uh huh, whatever you say, hot shot."

Ash simply stared at the two, blinking. "You two argue more than me and Dawn," he stated and grinned. "Kind of like Red and Blue. They're so similar they get into fights all the time."

Red began to gradually ignore their constant chatter. He would rather be hearing the howling of Mount Silver's blizzards and face unusually strong winds and sheer cold than be paired up with three annoying trainers to go search the entire continent of Johto. That in itself would take a long time, maybe a few months. He frowned, taking up the rear of the group. _Then it will be a long time before any of us can go home._

As he watched the forest seem to close in on them and try to strangle them, Gold had led them to a path through the trees and he took a deep breath. "Smells just like my Ilex Forest. Our two worlds must not be that different, I guess."

"Well they're parallel dimensions, so I would imagine most things are the same right?" Misty looked at him and Gold shrugged.

Ash looked back at Red and Pikachu yawned. "You're lagging, Red! Hurry up!" he called and Red looked up, nodding a bit before catching up. Something was obviously on his mind, he seemed far too distracted than he usually was. "Are you all right, Red?"

His counterpart nodded silently as usual. "Pika?"

"I have no idea, Pikachu."

By nightfall, they were all huddled around a fire Typhlosion had made for them, happily receiving grooming from his trainer. Ash set down his empty bowl of food and sighed happily. "That was good." He looked at Pikachu as he nodded in agreement and looked up at him expectantly. "What?"

"Pika, pikachu!"

He pointed at Red, who was starting to doze off near a tree and Ash was immediately confused. "Why are you pointing, Pikachu? That's rude."

"Chu!" Pikachu was growing frustrated with the language barrier and how his trainer couldn't understand what he was trying to say but Red seemed to get it and he smirked a bit, shaking his head.

"He wants to train," he said quietly, startling Misty, Ash and Gold that he'd actually spoken this time. Pikachu nodded vigorously as Red ignored the other's looks. He glanced at Pikachu as he got up, smiling a little bit.

"I think it's a good idea," Gold stated. "It's not like we're going to be doing anything. Misty, you can train with me!" He grinned. "I can help you with your electrical weaknesses, by the way." He tossed a pokéball into the air. "Amper, come on out!" As soon as the Ampharos was there, he smiled. "I know your Gyarados has a quadruple weakness against electric moves, so all you have to do is help raise its speed so it can avoid attacks like that."

Misty blinked but got up as well and released Gyarados. "All right, Gyarados we're going to be doing some training in the middle of the night with some crazy Johto kid, got it?"

"I'm still here you know."

Meanwhile, Ash went up to Red, smiling. "You're really gonna train us? Really?" Pikachu seemed to be thrilled and followed them eagerly to the other side of their small camp. "To be traveling with a champion is awesome enough but to be _trained_ by him!?" Red was frowning, silently telling him to be quiet. "Sorry. So what're we gonna do? How are you gonna train me if you won't tell me anyway?"

Red tossed a pokéball out and a Venusaur came out. When he nodded, Venusaur gave a loud sound and roots sprang from the ground and Ash jumped out of the way as it made a thick wall. "Dodge the attacks," Red said seriously and looked at Ash, stepping out of the way, then nodded at Venusaur again. Suddenly several leaves started flying towards them, passing through the thick vines as if they were nothing. Ash yelped and Pikachu dodged them with ease. As two of the leaves cut his arm, Red frowned. This would be a long training session if Ash wanted to be the best.

Ash was confused as Venusaur started sending several more leaves at the two of them. Why was Red just telling them to dodge the attacks? Why not just battle like Misty and Gold? "A trainer moves with his pokémon, feels what they feel, and keep them safe from any harm," Red told him with a slight frown._ If he can't do that, how does he expect to survive this trip?_

Red held up a hand for Venusaur to stop then looked at Gold, catching his attention with a tap to his shoulder. Gold looked up at him and Ash grew frustrated when Red told him something but he couldn't hear but Gold's face immediately lit up. "Of course we could show him!" he exclaimed and looked at Misty. "Be right back, gotta show Ashy-boy how we battle!"

"Don't call me that!" Ash snapped. He went to Misty though, sitting on the ground right beside her and Gyarados, who seemed to be just as equally curious. "Why do they all have to call me that?"

Gold had recalled Amper but sent out Typhlosion, grinning. "It's fun to annoy you is all." He then turned to Red and Venusaur, suddenly taking a stance as if he were about to run. "Typhlosion, Eruption!"

"Graa!" Typhlosion shouted, the fire on his mane grew large and a blast of fire shot up into the air and finally fire-red rocks were flung towards Venusaur quickly. Red stuck out a hand and Venusaur's thick vines shot out to protect itself.

Gold started to run around, trying to look for something and he was frowning, hands in tight fists. "Typhlosion, Hidden Power!"

A blast of ice shot from Typhlosion's mouth but hit the vines instead, and Gold scowled. "What is he doing?" he muttered quietly. He yelped when something large and purple broke through the ice and the vines receded as Typhlosion was hit with Sludge Bomb. "Typhlosion!"

Red held up a hand to stop the match and Ash blinked a few times. Typhlosion was still standing, as if the Sludge Bomb had done little to no damage, but Venusaur looked the same. Gold huffed. "I wanted to take that thing out with Typhlosion," he mumbled and Red shot him a glare. "Anyway, that's how we battle. When you run around, that's when you want to try and find a weak spot and tell your pokémon where to fire its attack otherwise it could be shooting blind if you just point at the pokémon. Your opponent could be readying a Frenzy Plant like Mr. Crazy here."

Misty was the first one to yawn and finally she smiled up at Gyarados. "I think you deserved a nice rest after Gold's mean ol' Amper, huh?"

"Graa…" Soon it was back inside of its pokéball and Misty stretched herself out onto her sleeping bag.

"How much longer do we have until we get to Azelea Town? Hopefully not too long, if I remember correctly, Spinarak and Ariados live in here, right?"

Gold suddenly grinned. "You afraid of nasty spiders?"

"I hate bugs is all!"

"That's why you scream every time you see a Caterpie, right?" Ash taunted and Misty huffed.

"You boys are mean!"

There was one thing Red enjoyed and that was their companionship. He was so used to being alone he almost forgot what it was like to be socializing with other kids near his age, but he yawned as well, covering it with his mouth and returned to his spot beside the tree. He was out like a light faster than he could notice his Pikachu escaping his pokéball for the hundredth time and taking a seat in his trainer's lap happily. "Chaaa," the little mouse said happily and rubbed his head against his stomach before curling up tightly to sleep.

Misty giggled. "They look like you and Pikachu," she told Ash.

The other boy looked at him. Then at his shirt. "Yea, but he didn't have to tear up my favorite jacket."

"You have another one that looks just like it, you weirdo, so just put it on if you're so concerned about your looks."

Ash groaned and grumbled for a few more minutes before he finally resorted to using the ruined jacket as his pillow and curled up happily inside of his warm sleeping bag. As Misty and Ash fell to sleep, Gold was frowning and he looked at Red and then back up at the sky. Most of it was covered by the tree branches and leaves, but what little he could see of it was bright from the moon and stars shining brightly. He couldn't wait to get back home and finally he realized that must have been what was on Red's mind. Gold knew they wouldn't be going home for a long time.

He turned his head to Ash and Misty again, sighing softly. These people had no idea what Team Rocket could do, they took over an entire city! Twice! Goldenrod and Saffron! From the way it sounded, their Team Rocket probably couldn't even bear the sight of a gun or something similar. _Just let them continue to be naïve, it is safest for them if they are,_ he thought and with that he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

* * *

**My cat hates it whenever I stay up too late and not go to bed like I'm supposed to. She'll start to meow real quiet then it'll gradually get louder. If I ignore her, she'll jump into my lap and block my vision of the computer screen and rub her face in mine. Then when I push her off, she'll just give up and fall asleep on the carpet. She's a weird kitteh. But yes! It is way too late for me to be up and be sane in the morning, so here's chapter 13! Remember to favorite/follow/review! **


	15. Route 36 and 37, Johto

**Route 36/37, Johto**

Blue was staring at the odd tree in the road and Dawn blinked. "What is that thing doing right here?" she blurted and poked it.

Brock studied it for a little and smiled. "It's a Sudowoodo, I have one and since it's rock type, just squirt a little water on it and it'll move."

Dawn smiled and looked at Piplup. "You're up then! Use Bubblebeam!"

Piplup obeyed and as soon as the bubbles hit the rock-type, it stirred uncomfortably and cried out, then soon spun around, glaring at Piplup. "Sudo!" it shouted and lunged for the penguin.

"Piplup, use another Bubblebeam!" The Sudowoodo stumbled backwards and seemed to be weakened before it finally decided to flee. Dawn had an empty pokéball in her hand, but she frowned when it disappeared into the brush. "Aww, I wanted to catch it!" she complained and Piplup looked up at her sympathetically.

"Maybe next time," Brock replied and looked over as Blue seemed to disappear. "H-hey, wait for us!" Blue didn't stop his walking as the other two ran to catch up with him. "What's the hurry?"

"The Sudowoodo was a big enough distraction, we have somewhere to be a little time to get there." He glanced up, frowning at the bright day sky as a familiar black began to form. "Because of those things." He looked at the two of them. "You don't have to come with me if you want, from here on out, I'm pretty positive it will be dangerous for all of us."

They both smiled at him. "We agreed we'd go with you guys and help you find your friends and go home," Dawn replied as she picked Piplup up.

"And you have my awesome cooking!" Brock added.

Blue frowned a little and said nothing as he turned back around and started walking again. He had traveled alone during his time in Kanto and had never really gone anywhere with people. The short times with Red didn't count, since most of the time they were fighting against each other or trying to get out of some form of danger. Brock and Dawn were soon immersed in their own conversation as they walked on and nearly ran into Blue when he stopped suddenly. "Blue! What's the big idea?!" Dawn exclaimed.

"Shh." He was looking around and soon threw a pokéball out. "Pidgeot, Whirlwind!"

There was a yelp and a pokémon's cry as the sudden blast of wind hit them both. A Team Rocket grunt was flung out of a tree and hit the ground hard on his back. "Sandslash, use Crush Claw!" he shouted and the Sandslash got up from its fallen position and flung itself towards Pidgeot.

"Pidgeot, Mirror Move!" As soon as both pokémon had their claws in each other's grips, Blue grinned. "Now take him up to the air and use Air Slash!"

"Sandslash, Rapid Spin!" Sandslash got out of Pidgeot's grip, but the bird soon dove towards the ground-type and hit it hard enough to send it crashing back to the ground beside the grunt. The Rocket grunt returned Sandslash and threw two pokéballs out. "Arbok, use Crunch! Magneton, use Electro Ball!"

"Oh, no you don't!" Brock shouted and threw out one of his own. "Croagunk, Brick Break on Magneton!"

"Piplup, use Whirlpool on Magneton!"

"Pidgeot, Air Slash against Arbok!"

Both of the grunt's pokémon fainted and Blue glared at the grunt. "Why are you here?" he demanded, approaching him.

"None of your business!" He threw one last pokéball, but instead of Fearow attacking them, he used it to get into the air and fly off. "Wait until Giovanni hears about this! Then you'll be sorry!" The grunt then disappeared into the sky, causing the others to frown.

Blue was shaken up. Giovanni was after them, clearly he didn't want anyone to disturb whatever plans he had in store for the two different worlds. Besides if he knew how to go back and forth so easily… He shook the thoughts from his mind as he heard Dawn speaking.

"You're not going to go after him?" He shook his head. "Why not?"

"Because he'll tell Giovanni that we're strong enough to take care of ourselves and whatever he decides to throw at us, it'll be useless." He returned Pidgeot. "Let's go." But as he took the first step, a violent wind whipped up around the trio and he covered his eyes with his arm. "What now?"

Dawn yelped. "What's with this wind?" she shouted and looked up. The black hole had expanded to reach just in front of them, but instead of pulling them in, it was pushing wind out. A tree fell out of the middle of the hole and a few more after the first fell and hit the ground with a crash. "Let's get out of here before it decides to throw trees at us!"

They were staring at the middle and Brock gasped. "Someone's falling through it, look!"

He pointed and Blue wasted no time as he sent out Pidgeot. "Pidgeot, catch them!" he cried and ran against the wind to meet whoever was falling. Dawn frowned. It was obvious Blue knew this person and her Pikachu, even from so far away, and she ran after him as the portal started closing. Pidgeot caught the blond human just before she had hit the trees and dove down to meet its trainer and companions. Blue picked the girl up and frowned as she winced, cracking her eyes open. "Yellow? What are you doing here?"

She rubbed her head as he set her down onto her feet and she shook her head. "I was in the forest with Chuchu and we were fishing, then this black hole thingy opened up and pulled us in." She looked up, blinking at Dawn and Brock. "Brock?"

"Not your Brock. You're in a parallel world now," Brock replied with a smile and didn't fail to notice the girl's shock.

"Parallel… world?"

Blue nodded. "All of us are here except for Green now. She's still at the gym."

"Oh." She rubbed her head again and finally looked around. "Where are we?"

"Johto. We're almost to Ecruteak City and we're stopping there for the night."

Dawn smiled. "We're on our way to Hoenn to meet with Sapphire, Dia and Pearl," she added and Brock nodded.

"Where are the others then?"

"Red and Gold are probably in Azelea Town by now, Crystal and Platinum are in Sinnoh, and we don't know where Silver or Ruby are, which is why we are looking," Blue added and started walking again. "Let's get going before it gets too dark now. One random Team Rocket grunt and a black hole spewing trees and Yellow out is enough for a day."

Dawn frowned. "How do you know if it's random or not? They could be following us, you know."

"Then I'm not too worried about it. You two seem more than capable enough together, plus you have me. Ash and Misty can handle themselves too, so can Red and Gold."

Yellow blinked and followed them eagerly. "At least we're all safe. This doesn't seem like a bad place to be."

"Thank you! You're the first person who's said that!" Dawn said and Yellow giggled. As the girls got acquainted with each other, Blue groaned and started to walk again, leaving Brock to tell the two that he was already leaving. "He's always so irritated, you know. Like something's shoved way up his—"

"Ahem, I can still hear you," Blue interrupted sharply and Dawn smiled.

"You know it's true though!"

* * *

**And here's Yellow! That's all this chapter was for, pretty much. Sorry it took a few days, I've been distracted with Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. I'm going to start re-writing chapters too, some of them are okay but I want to add a few things, nothing really major but I'll let you all know when the new chapters will be up. I'm not starting on it today though, maybe in a few days they'll start popping up. Thanks for reading and review/follow/favorite! :D  
**


	16. Azelea Town, Johto

**Azelea Town, Johto**

Red watched as Ash's Pikachu ate his food happily but when it came to ketchup, he grew confused. Why on earth would a Pikachu be so attached to ketchup and apples? Ash had given the electric mouse an apple at the pokémon center they were now staying in and it had found a bottle of ketchup on a table, then Misty explained that Pikachu had always loved ketchup and apples. A small taste was one thing but… an entire bottle? "Do you know how much sugar is in ketchup?" Gold said, matching Red's confusion.

Ash smiled. "He likes it, so it's fine with me," he replied and scratched Pikachu's head as it set the bottle of ketchup down.

"He could get sick you know."

"No he won't."

"Yes he could."

"No!"

"Yes!"

"Enough, both of you," Misty interjected and both boys stopped their petty argument. Red was grateful for one thing: Misty was able to quiet them down no matter the situation. "We're all pretty tired so let's just finish eating and get to bed."

"At least we don't have to get two different rooms anymore," Ash replied, stabbing his fork into his green beans. Then he pointed his fork towards Red, causing his counterpart to blink a few times. "And you have to help train me some more! And the next time I see Blue, you gotta promise me that I'll be good enough to beat him."

Red smirked as if saying, _Good luck._ He stood and took his empty tray back to the counter and headed for their room.

"It's more of a reaction than I'll ever get from him," Gold said. "The last time he smirked at me like that was when he demolished my team during a re-match. Sure, he had only three pokémon left, but they all had full health." He smiled a bit. "It's fun battling him though, if you ever get as good as I do, though."

"I'll be even better than you!"

Misty groaned. "You two never stop arguing, do you?"

"No but you never stop interrupting, do you?" Gold mimicked and earned a death glare from the girl.

"I'm going to bed, so just keep it down!" she retorted and Gold winced.

"You should too!" Misty huffed in annoyance at him and Ash snickered a bit. "What?"

"Nothing," Ash replied and got up as well. Once they had reached the room, Red had taken a top bunk and was already asleep as Misty crawled into the bottom bunk. "Good night."

"Pika pi…" Pikachu yawned and crawled up onto Ash's bed and rubbed his stomach happily.

"That was a good dinner, huh Pikachu?"

"Chu!"

"Shh!" Misty whispered harshly and shut them up immediately.

Red was the first one up the next morning, munching on a piece of toast as he stared up at the sky. His thoughts still went around Team Rocket, Palkia, Giratina and this odd world, and didn't hear the sound of a pokéball opening until Pikachu stuck his face in front of his suddenly. He suppressed a yelp of shock and scowled at the electric mouse. _Don't startle me like that_, he thought and sighed, scratching his head. "Chaa…." Pikachu said as his ears were scratched.

He couldn't help but smile at his starter and let him have the rest of the buttered toast. Pikachu devoured it instantly and they both looked up as the door opened and Ash came out with his Pikachu on his shoulders, stretching. "I thought you'd be out here," he said and looked at him. "Can you help train me more while we wait for the others to wake up?"

Red shook his head and looked at his Pikachu as he jumped off to play with Ash's Pikachu.

"Why not?" He was persistent, wasn't he? He reminded Red of Yellow a little when he helped her catch Ratty. He turned his head back up to the sunny sky, giving a soft sigh. Ash seemed to understand what was going on and sat down beside him, watching the two Pikachu. "I know you want to go home as fast as you can but even I know it won't take as short as you want it to." He smiled at him. "So we just gotta make the best of the time we have, right?"

Red blinked and gave a small smile, looking at the electric mice as well. _I guess this journey won't be so bad,_ he thought, calling his Pikachu over silently, to which it obeyed and jumped onto his shoulder. "Pika!"

When he stood up, Ash started grinning. "So… you'll train me right?" When Red simply walked inside, Ash pouted. "Aww, please? Pretty, pretty please?" He followed his counterpart inside, much to Red's annoyance but he looked at a table when he saw a sleepy Gold trying to finish eating a bowl of oatmeal. "Where's Misty?"

"Shower," Gold mumbled and yawned again. "Took it before I could. She's still in there. Why do girls have to take really long showers anyway? She's going to drain the entire center's hot water." He looked up at them and smiled. "What were you two doing outside anyway? Training?"

"He won't train me today 'cause he's being stubborn," Ash said as Red walked off to get some food for himself as well. He looked at Gold. "Is he always like this?"

Gold shrugged. "You have to get him on a good day. It took me almost a month to convince him to try and train me at least a little bit and the most I got was, as I said, having Toga getting over his fears of heights." He smiled a little. "Just back off a little and he might train you. All you need to ask is once, and he'll eventually do it. If you keep asking him, the less likely he'll help train you."

Ash pouted a bit, figuring he wouldn't be training today with Red and darted off to get food as well with Pikachu taking the lead. When he returned with his tray, Misty had come out of the room as well and greeted them as she sat down beside Ash. "Good morning. What's the plan for today?" she asked and watched as Gold glanced as his pokégear.

"If we can get through Union Cave by the end of today, that would be awesome. After that we should reach Violet City and from there, make our way through routes thirty and thirty-one. Route thirty-two is before Violet City, though, and that's the longest route in Johto. That could take us up to two or three days in itself."

"Maybe your friends are there then," Ash added but Gold shook his head.

"If they were, they'd be gone by now. Silver isn't one to stick around one place for too long and if Ruby is with him then he's going to follow him."

Red returned with his tray and looked at Gold's pokégear as well, frowning at the map a little but blinked as it rang. _Oh, wait…_ He pulled his out of his pocket and saw Blue's name flashing on the screen. "Better pick it up," Gold said with a grin and finally after a little bit of fumbling, Red answered it silently.

"You really should answer it quicker than that," Blue's voice said. "I know the others hear me so listen up! We fought against a Team Rocket grunt that was aimed for us, so you'd all better watch yourselves, he went to go tell Giovanni that we were alive or something, and Yellow's here now too—"

"Hi Red! Hi Gold!" Yellow's voice cried, and it sounded as if she had taken the pokégear from Blue.

Red stiffened a little at the sound of her voice and Gold gave a frown, but it was replaced with a smile soon.

"Would you stop that? Give that back! You're almost as bad as that pesky woman!" Another shuffling sound and Blue had it back in his hands. "Anyway, just be careful. We're almost to Ecruteak City, where are you guys?"

"Azelea Town, we're going to try and get through Union Cave by the end of tonight," Misty replied.

"You really should've left by now. Tch, whatever. Just get through the cave as fast as you can—"

"We know, we know. Crazy speed walker!" Gold interrupted.

Red heard Yellow's voice say in the background, "He's right, Blue! You walk way too fast!"

Blue groaned and hung-up and Ash laughed. "It's true!" he shouted.

"Inside voice, Ash, sheesh," Misty scolded and earned herself a glare from her companion. "Blue's right, we should get going now."

"Well, who's fault was that? Who's the one who took the thousand hour long shower?" Gold retorted.

"It was not a thousand hours!"

"Really felt like it!"

"Just because you're a boy and don't know how to count, doesn't mean you can yell at me for taking a nice shower!"

"I wasn't yelling at you!"

"You certainly are now!"

"Pikachu…" Ash's Pikachu mumbled and sweat-dropped with the other two humans.

"Okay, okay, let's go before the sun decides to set," Ash said and dragged the two out with Red taking the rear.

_Team Rocket is in full force now, hmm?_ Red thought, then smirked a little bit. Giovanni would be surprised that they had friends with them that were strong as well, and fully capable of bringing them down again. He wouldn't know what hit them.

* * *

**Please review/favorite/follow! Oh yea, and the fanfic hit 5,400 views! I see a lot of people not following the story, but every chapter is hitting the same numbers. You should follow this! That way you don't have to always keep checking back to see if I've updated or not ;) Off to the vet now! Then quite possibly get some Taco Hell for dinner... A chicken quesadilla sounds good right about now. xD  
**


	17. Littleroot Town, Hoenn

**Littleroot Town, Hoenn**

Professor Birch seemed to be having a staring contest with Sapphire, who was growing irritated the more time passed. "Tell me again how I'm your father now?" he finally asked.

"Agh! I've told yeh a hundred times now!" she exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air in frustration and finally pointed a finger in his face. "Yeh're my dad! Norman is Ruby's dad!"

The professor only rubbed his chin. "And how is it you have fangs? That's quite intriguing…"

"Yeh can't pay attention to anything for five minutes, can yeh?"

This had been going on for several hours, in fact. Professor Birch still couldn't believe that in the other world he had a daughter, while Pearl and Diamond had been practicing their manzai routines as Sapphire tried explaining to him how he was her father. The first few times they had shown her their manzai, Sapphire had laughed heartily with them and soon had become immersed with trying to explain to Professor Birch he was her father in their world.

"And yeh can't expect us to sit around here and wait for all of _them_ to get here? It could take months!" She knew Ruby could take care of himself if the time came, but wherever he was, he would get too distracted and probably make enemies right off the bat. _This Giratina pokémon could come back and swallow him back up and _then_ who knows where he'll end up!_ She was worried, and she tried hiding it as best she could however, she knew Diamond could see right through her, and so could the other two.

"Well if it's to keep you children safe, then yes, you will stay here."

She wouldn't let that influence her for a second. "But me and Ruby—"

"—Ruby and I—" he corrected.

"—defeated Team Magma _and_ Team Aqua _and_ we saved Hoenn from Kyogre and Groudon! How can we not be able to protect ourselves?"

Pearl stood up as he heard the argument. "And Dia and I befriended Palkia and Dialga to free themselves from Cyrus and Team Galactic! Little Miss even defeated the Battle Frontier and all of the gyms, the last two by herself!"

Dia nodded, watching them as he ate a donut happily along with Lax. "Plus I perfected my cooking skills, so we can go look for Ruby and Little Miss without starving!" he added.

Professor Birch smiled a bit. "According to Professor Oak, he heard from Blue that they talked to Platina and Crystal. They're both in Sinnoh, but none of them know where Ruby or Silver are—Hey, wait! Sapphire!" He got up, trying to stop the girl from barging out.

"I can't just stay here!" she cried. "Ruby's missing! He's not even a battler! He's a coordinator! He hates battling! What if he has to battle? What if they've gotten into trouble and they can't get themselves out of it?" She spun around to face the professor. "I'm going whether you like it or not!"

Professor Birch hesitated. This girl held fire in her blue eyes, staring up at the professor with the stubbornness May held and finally he sighed. "Fine, fine. But let me at least call May and Max to go with you two. They can at least help you around the area got it? You can meet each other in Petalburg City, okay?"

She didn't care who these May and Max people were, but it sounded like the professor trusted them. Sapphire broke into a grin and pumped a fist into the air in victory. "Yes! Pearl! Diamond! Let's go!"

Pearl immediately jumped up. "Finally! I'm ready to go back to Sinnoh already though, it's way too hot here for my taste," he said and rubbed his chin before looking at Diamond when he made no move to get up. "Dia—no, Diamond! Get up and let's go!"

"Where are we goin' again?" he asked, his mouth full of the last bit of donut. He returned Lax and followed his friend out of the lab.

"To Petalburg City, wherever that is." Pearl looked at Sapphire. "Are you sure you know the way there?"

"Positive, I know the way like the back of my hand." She turned her head to look at the two boys. "But can you two keep up?" She grinned mischievously. "Ruby and I traveled Hoenn in eighty days, collecting all of the gym badges and contest ribbons. If you can figure out how long it took us to travel from city to city, then good on you, now let's get going."

"We went around Sinnoh in twenty-five days!" Pearl snapped and ran after the wild child.

Diamond rubbed his head as he went after them. Once Sapphire had climbed a tree and began swinging with them, Pearl grew frustrated and cried, "Rayhiko! We gotta keep up with her and she's going way too fast for us!"

The Luxray nodded and waited for the two Sinnoh boys to climb on before running after Sapphire. "This place is so humid," Dia complained to Pearl. "I can't wait to see the snow in Twinleaf Town again. All this heat is getting to me."

"Gah, you two complain just as much—if not more—than Ruby ever did!" Sapphire exclaimed from up ahead. "Hurry up! We're almost to Oldale Town!" She paused in her swinging, waiting for them to catch up, not hearing the blond mumble something about her being too much like a pokémon herself.

"We're coming, we're coming!" he finally shouted and then grinned, looking at Rayhiko. "Try and go faster than her. Let's turn it into a race!"

"Ray," the large cat replied and finally leaped forward, starting to run. Sapphire, however, grinned.

"If it's a race yeh want, it's a race yeh'll get!" she shouted, throwing out a pokéball and let go of a branch, landing on a Tropius' back. "Pilo, catch up to them! Let's get to Oldale before them!"

As they raced along the path towards Oldale Town, Diamond was keeping an eye on the sky, spotting a small black hole open, harmless but still there. Eventually it disappeared and frowning, he tapped Pearl's shoulder. "Pearl! Those holes are starting to open up again! I think maybe Giratina's—"

"Dia, we'll be all right and we'll find Little Miss before any of us go home plus, we have a race to win!" he interrupted and Diamond frowned but nodded and finally yelped when Rayhiko jumped up suddenly and over a thick fallen log. Pearl was laughing. "Faster, Rayhiko, we've almost caught up to Sapphire!"

Diamond sighed in relief when Rayhiko landed gracefully and once the town was visible, Sapphire had Pilo stop and she looked down at the boys. "Pearl! Dia! Oldale Town looks a little different than our Oldale Town, like it's bigger!"

The two boys looked at the small town and Pearl blinked. "This place is a lot smaller than Twinleaf Town!" he exclaimed.

"I wouldn't say that, maybe only a little bit," Dia replied.

Pearl only rolled his eyes and directed Rayhiko towards the town while Pilo flew above them. There was a "Welcome to Oldale Town" sign just before the Pokémon Center and the moment Rayhiko stepped past it, Pearl was cheering. "We beat you, Sapphire!" he shouted, even though they had been neck-in-neck the last few feet.

Sapphire only snorted. "Yea, yea." She landed and returned Pilo. "Come on, we can walk the rest of the way to Petalburg, it won't be too far and besides, once we reach Petalburg, we can stay in the center there. It's a lot nicer than this one, I'm sure."

"Well nothing can beat Sinnoh, especially Hoenn. This place is just way too hot."

"Who says Sinnoh's better than Hoenn?"

"Me! Sinnoh doesn't have crazy hot weather like this!"

"Oh yea?"

"Yea!"

Diamond just kept walking. "I'll bet you we'll get there before them, huh, Lax?" he said and the pokémon beside him nodded happily. He then looked up at the sky, frowning as he wondered where the others were, especially worried about Platina. Sure, she was a capable battler, but even if she was with someone, he only hoped they helped protect her like they did in their own adventure.

* * *

**C-c-c-combo breaker! And here's what Sapphire, Diamond and Pearl are all up to in Hoenn. It's my second favorite region, the first being Kanto :P Remember to review/favorite/follow! **


	18. Ecruteak City, Johto

**Ecruteak City, Johto**

The sun had set hours ago, the girls were both exhausted and Brock was relieved to see the city first and pointed. "Look! We're almost there!" he said and even Blue was relieved. The Bell Tower towered over the rest of the city's buildings, clearly the oldest, and nearby the burned-down Brass Tower. The city itself carried their own mysteries, but as tired as they were, they couldn't have cared less. _If Gold was here, he would already be in the Kimono Dance Theater, huh?_ Blue shook his head, turning it towards the others.

"That's the longest route… ever," Yellow complained and sighed. "Me and Chuchu can hardly keep up with any of you. You guys are mean to short people."

Dawn smiled. "Boys are mean period," she replied. Blue had long since learned to ignore girls and their constant chatter and gossip, and Dawn seemed to be an expert at spreading it no matter what. He did learn that she came from Sinnoh, just like Platina, but instead of encountering Uxie, she had encountered Mesprit. He had only ever encountered Deoxys and Mewtwo, but both times he hadn't befriended them like the other dex holders. He had been fighting against them for whatever reason.

He rubbed his head. Team Rocket had been on his mind for quite some time now, it was obvious but he couldn't hide his disappointment when he noticed the pokémon center's lights were off. Something seemed off, and a bad feeling started to rise in his gut. "So now what are we going to do? Where are we going to go?" Dawn exclaimed.

Blue groaned inwardly. Leave it to Dawn to be overdramatic about anything and everything. "We can just camp outside, it's not that hard, really. We're going to have to do it on our way to Hoenn from Cianwood, after all." He stuffed his hands in his pockets.

Brock crossed his arms as he watched the pokémon center for a few more moments. "But I wonder why it's closed. It's supposed to be a twenty-four-hour place. What if someone has an emergency, where would they go to take their pokémon?" he asked.

Yellow was tapping her chin with a finger and looked up. "I'll ask them!" she said and pointed towards a Hoothoot that was staring at them. Brock and Dawn were both stunned when it didn't seem to be frightened of her, but even more so when Yellow closed her eyes to concentrate. The Hoothoot jumped in surprise as well but it didn't fly away. After a few moments, she frowned a little. "Oh," Yellow finally said and opened her eyes, smiling at the pokémon. "Thank you, Hoothoot."

"Hoot!" The bird hopped off and flew into the sky, leaving them be.

"What did it say?" Blue asked nonchalantly, pointedly ignoring Brock and Dawn's confusion.

Yellow was frowning again, looking at the pokémon center. "It said that humans in black uniforms came in a few hours ago, but it never saw the nurses leave. It also said that it hadn't seen any other flying pokémon around for a while, and the bugs are gone too."

Before he could reply, Dawn finally stepped in between the two of them, her hands on her hips. "_What_ is going _on_?" she scolded, and Yellow's face flushed. "How did you understand that Hoothoot? Can you understand pokémon?"

She nodded. "If I concentrate enough, yes. I can also heal them, which is why Professor Oak gave me the Healer title."

Brock tilted his head curiously. "Titles? Why doesn't our Professor Oak give us one?"

"Because most people don't really care besides us. But like I said, I'm the Healer, Blue is the Trainer. Red is the Fighter, Gold is the Hatcher, Silver is the Exchanger, Green is the Evolver, Crystal is the Catcher, and finally Ruby, Sapphire and Emerald are Ribbons, Badges and Symbols respectively." She crossed her arms across her chest as she started to think. "I'm not sure if Professor Oak gave Platina, Pearl or Diamond titles, though. Maybe because they've met Uxie, Mesprit and Azelf, they would be Wisdom, Willpower and Emotion." She shrugged. "I don't know."

"But you can heal _and_ talk to pokémon?" Dawn asked, exaggerating hand movements as she tried to put two and two together.

Blue was starting to ignore them and stared long and hard at the pokémon center. He could've sworn he saw a flash of movement through the dark windows but he looked at the others. None of them had noticed it, discussing Yellow's ability with each other without a care in the world. "We should go find a place to stay, now," he interrupted. "If Team Rocket took over the center then we should rest and try and find out why they did. Come on, all of you." He turned back around, heading for the trees nearby. "If bug- and flying-type pokémon aren't here like they usually are, then something is going on. Maybe Morty's scaring them off to protect them from Team Rocket."

"I've always hated ghost types," Brock said and shuddered.

"But we can't go sleep when Nurse Joy could be in trouble!" Yellow objected, staying put and watched the pokémon center. "All of the pokémon she and the Chansey take care of are in danger!"

"We can't just waltz in without a plan and expect to win!" Blue retorted, turning to her. "Giovanni could be in there, though I doubt it. Even if he is, there could be way too many Team Rocket members for us to handle alone."

"Did you say Team Rocket?" asked a male's voice and Blue spun around immediately, already sending out Arcanine.

Dawn had Piplup in front of her and Chuchu was sitting on top of Yellow's head, looking just as nervous as her trainer. "Who are you? Show yourself!" Blue snapped.

The voice laughed. "Really, now? I'm not threatening you, so just relax."

Brock was blinking as if he recognized the voice. "Morty, is that you?"

The gym leader was up in a tree with his Gengar beside him, then jumped down to face them. "Yes, but I don't know how you know me." He looked at Gengar, who just stared at the teens and pre-teens. "Team Rocket did indeed come into Ecruteak a few hours ago, Gengar sensed them coming and we scared most of the pokémon away so they wouldn't be caught." He was frowning now, looking at the pokémon center. "Nurse Joy is still in there, too. They're trying to steal pokémon that are being treated in there, but I'm sure with all of us we can beat them and get them in jail, where they belong, right?" He finally smiled. "Care to join me? You all seem like capable trainers yourselves."

Dawn smiled. "Of course we can help you! We all have our own powerful pokémon!" She grinned and took out a pokéball. "Quilava, Piplup and I can definitely help you get rid of those Team Rocket grunts!"

_But what if Ariana, Petrel, Proton or Archer are here? Would any of them be able to beat them? Perhaps._ Blue looked at his companions and nodded once, then looked up at Arcanine. "You ready? We're going to get rid of Team Rocket—"

When there was feminine laughter, cold and heartless, Blue started to grow a little nervous, holding his hands in fists. He knew this time it wouldn't be a friend coming to join them in a fight against Team Rocket and save the pokémon center. "Get rid of us? Ha! Your friends Crystal and Silver could hardly put up a fight against me," said the voice and they all looked up.

Ariana was smiling as she landed on the ground gracefully and let go of a dark bird's leg. _Well shit. Speak of the Arceus forsaken devil._ And it seemed like her Murkrow had evolved into a Honchcrow. _Why does this always happen to us?_ "Oh, I remember you. You're the Viridian City gym leader, aren't you? And you're the Pewter City leader. My, my, three gym leaders and two little girls against us?" As she gave a giggle, Dawn's temper took over.

"Who are you calling a little girl?" She had never seen this woman before, she made her nervous. This wasn't the Team Rocket she knew, Jessie, James and Meowth had never been serious like this woman. She pointed towards Honchcrow and shouted, "Piplup, Whirlpool!"

Ariana's laughter ceased and she frowned. Honchcrow avoided the whirlpool and as it waited for a command, she took out a second pokéball. "Honchcrow, Pursuit!" She threw another pokéball out. "Arbok, use Poison Sting!"

"Arcanine, Wild Charge on Honchcrow!" He looked at Brock, Yellow and Morty just as his pokémon tried hitting the bird, but missed after it leaped into the air, leaving it unharmed. "You three go to the pokémon center! Try and at least get rid of some of those grunts when we come back after we beat her!"

They nodded and ran off, leaving Dawn and Blue to fight Ariana on their own. The executive smiled and opened up her fan as if she were bored. "You think you can beat me all by your lonesome selves?" She laughed and Piplup started to grow just as frustrated as his trainer.

Blue didn't take his eyes off of Ariana and her pokémon as he told Dawn soft and calmly, "Don't lose your temper, that's what she wants. She wants you to think irrationally, she doesn't want you to concentrate on this battle and win so focus, Dawn. The others are waiting for us, Nurse Joy and the center needs us right now, got it?"

Dawn frowned and gritted her teeth. She knew he was right, and finally nodded. "Fine. Piplup, Ice Beam on Arbok!"

"Honchcrow, use Astonish!" As soon as Piplup was hit, he flinched, the Ice Beam completely missing and Dawn gritted her teeth as Ariana smirked. "Now Arbok, use Crunch on Arcanine!"

"Arcanine, ExtremeSpeed!" Arcanine dodged the Arbok just in time, then tried moving around to hit it from behind, but the Arbok only seemed to smile and slithered right out of the way before it lunged. It latched onto the fire-type and despite the cry Arcanine gave, Blue wasn't worried. Ariana seemed like she hadn't trained a bit. "Use Close Combat, Arcanine!"

Arcanine broke free of the snake once it was hit and jumped backwards, favoring its front left paw especially. Blue grunted softly, knowing now that his pokémon was hurt, Ariana would have the upper hand if they didn't think of something fast. "Piplup, use Whirlpool!" Dawn suddenly shouted. Piplup created a large body of water, swirling quickly and dangerously and once it was thrown towards the two enemy pokémon, Arbok tried to slither away but its tail was caught, immediately pulling it inside. Honchcrow also tried to fly away but as the air current pulled it inside from the top, Dawn suddenly smiled. "Now, Piplup, use Ice Beam!"

"Piiiiiiip—luuuuup!" Once the two pokémon were frozen inside of the whirlpool, Blue smiled when he understood what she was doing. Finally she was starting to learn something from battling.

He shoved a hand forward towards the two frozen enemies. "Arcanine, use Close Combat again and finish them off!"

Arcanine rushed forward, ignoring its injured leg.

"No! Arbok! Honchcrow! Get out of there!" It was useless, and as soon as the ice broke, the two pokémon fell, both out cold. Ariana scowled at the two of them but snapped her fingers. A thick Smog attack caused Blue and Dawn to cough haggardly and she was laughing again. "See you two later!"

"We aren't—done with you yet!" Blue tried to shout, but he was interrupted by the coughing and he was suddenly grateful to have Arcanine run to his trainer to help try and get him out of the smoke. He cursed when the smog cleared; Ariana had disappeared.

Dawn ran to Piplup and picked him up, smiling as she hugged him. "You did great, Piplup." Piplup puffed his chest out proudly, patting it with his wing. She then turned her head towards Blue. "Who was she? She knew you and Brock, but we've never met her before. She won't come back again, right?"

He shook his head, taking out a potion to spray on Arcanine's paw. It was his only one, but Arcanine was his trusted partner. "Not tonight, no." He was sure she would return, but not any time tonight and for that, he was grateful. "Come on, we need to help the others inside of the pokémon center," he said and returned Arcanine. Dawn nodded and they both ran to the pokémon center.

What they found, however, wasn't what they expected.

Yellow was kneeling beside Kitty and Chuchu, healing both of them while Morty crossed his arms across his chest. "My, you two are very slow at taking down one opponent," he was teasing, smiling as he looked up at them from a group of tied up grunts. As Blue and Dawn gaped, he laughed. "Yellow and Brock did most of the work. All I did was catch the ones who tried to run away."

"B-b-b-b-but how did you do it so fast?!" Dawn exclaimed.

"Easy, they're grunts. They aren't as tough as any Rocket Executive," Yellow replied with a giggle.

Brock nodded. "Besides, there were six of them and three of us plus some Chansey who wanted to fight for the pokémon center too," he added and looked at the counter, where Nurse Joy was looking very relieved.

"Oh, thank you, all of you. Now those poor pokémon will be safe. Please, you four should stay here for the night, stay as long as you want, even!" she said. "It's the least I could—"

"How about you and me go on a nice romantic dinner, Nurse Joy?" Brock immediately asked. Somehow he had gone from the farthest part of the room right in front of her, startling the poor woman.

"I—I, uh…" They all blinked when he collapsed from one of Croagunk's Poison Jabs. "Oh, dear."

"He does that all the time, sorry," Dawn said.

Yellow stretched, having finished healing her pokémon. "I think I'm going to go to sleep now, all that healing made me tired." She yawned and followed the others to their room. As soon as she hit the bed, she was out, not bothering to take off her boots.

Dawn giggled a bit, watching her for a moment and looked at Piplup. "You're tired too, huh?"

After they had all fallen asleep, Officer Jenny came to pick up the Team Rocket grunts. As she did, she and the other officers didn't see Ariana standing a ways from them, hidden between trees and talking through a pokégear. "They're still around, sir. There's four of them now instead of three here in Ecruteak. Two from our world and two from here. I think they're trying to find the others," she whispered so she wouldn't get caught.

"Are any of them disposed?"

She winced. She was going to get in _so_ much trouble. "N-no, sir, I—"

"They are separated! How hard can it be to get rid of a bunch of kids? Honestly! You're an executive!"

The other end hung up and Ariana scowled at the pokégear. "Yes, but one of them is your son, sir. What you fail to realize is that you're still a father and you're harming his friends. Even if we do get rid of them, you won't be able to fight your own child." Perhaps Giovanni would realize that separating the dex holders was pointless, but she shook her head. They weren't here to solve family issues.

She pocketed her pokégear and disappeared into the night.

* * *

**So I told you guys when I would start updating chapters and I have started! The prologue through chapter four have been updated, so if you want to re-read those, go ahead. Nothing much has changed, however, just added a few minor details, some dialogue, fixed a few typos that I realized I made. Thanks for reading and please review/favorite/follow!  
**


	19. Union Cave, Johto

**Union Cave, Johto**

Of course they had gotten lost, Gold thought he had known the way around when in truth, it wasn't as simple as 'his' Union Cave. Ash swore he saw the same rock formation three times now, but despite Gold strongly denying it, Misty and Red were beginning to agree and Pikachu was growing bored of going in circles. There was a tapping sound as Gold pulled out his pokégear. "And this thing doesn't even work this far underground," he complained but then smiled. "But we aren't lost, I know exactly where I'm going!"

Ash sighed while Misty groaned. "You've been saying that for almost two hours, when in reality, you have no clue where you're going," Misty said and crossed her arms across her chest.

"Well, in my Union Cave, it's just a straight shot pretty much, you get in, you go around a few rocks and water, and then you're out with the occasional trainer along the way to slow you down 'cause that's what random trainers love to do."

"You talk too much."

He glowered at her. "Oh yea?"

"Yea!"

"At least Ash is quiet for once!"

Ash turned his eyes towards the arguing duo and took a defensive stance, hands in fists. "I heard that!"

"Pi, pikachu!"

Red sighed, a small sweat-drop appearing as he watched the three younger trainers but he walked past them, hands in his pockets irritably. Ash noticed first and ran after his counterpart while Gold and Misty continued to argue as they followed in turn. Red could imagine with a smirk that Crystal already snapping at them, _Will you two hotheads cool it?_ Especially when Gold was involved. "…But in all honesty, do you think Silver is even in Johto?" Gold suddenly asked them and Red blinked, glancing at him. During the short time they had all been together, Red immediately saw that Gold and Silver was just like he and Blue, best friends and rivals; he could also see that Gold missed him terribly, and his worry sometimes overwhelmed him.

Ash shrugged. "You never know. But I'm sure if we could reach someone out there using your pokégears, then someone is bound to know."

The other boy frowned. "And the farther we get away from Sinnoh, we won't be able to reach Crys or Platina."

He rubbed his chin. "Well, Gary's up there. He's a pokémon researcher so maybe he's helping the two of them now. And if he's not, I'm sure he's heard you're all here from a different dimension, right?"

"Pretty positive about that," Misty added with a nod. She noticed Ash starting to lead the way and she snatched his ear quickly, keeping it in her iron grip. "You have an even worse sense of direction than Gold does, you are _so_ not leading us!"

"Ow! Misty, let go!"

Misty finally let go and turned around to face them, taking a proud stance, her hands on her hips and chest out. "I'll lead us! A girl has a better sense than any boy does anyway."

"That's not true! You get lost all the time!"

"Pfft, as if! Remember when we got lost in the Viridian Forest the very first time?"

"Oh yea? Remember when you screamed at the sight of a Caterpie?"

Ash, Misty and Gold argued with each other and growing frustrated, Pikachu shocked all three of them to get them to quiet down. "M-maybe we should just take a few minutes, huh?" Ash muttered, comically falling to the ground with the other two. Red just stared at them and finally rolled his eyes and sat down on a rock beside the trio and closed his eyes briefly to rest.

After a few minutes of recovering from Pikachu's Thundershock, Gold rubbed his chin. "Well, I'm sure the exit's nearby, we can't be that far from it." He looked around and saw the same rock formations, but this time looking at the different routes they could take without going over the water to get even more lost than they already were. "We came from there, and we went in a circle at least three or four times."

"I like how you're thinking out loud, maybe we should just go this way," Misty said and pointed towards a different route away from the circle.

Gold took one look at it and crossed his arms across his chest. "Nope. Way off course." It was clear he just didn't want to follow her lead.

"Then it's decided, we're going that way," Ash replied and got up. "Besides, I'm tired of sitting around and not being out of the cave, I'm ready to breathe fresh air again."

Gold sighed and followed the others through the narrow tunnel. "Why we didn't go through here in the first place, I have no idea," he muttered to himself. "Maybe because this is a really tight squeeze and I can barely get through it?"

Oh, what Red wouldn't give to have just a few minutes of silence. The younger trainers insisted on always filling the precious air with some form of noise, whether it was snoring, talking or just humming incessantly. As they continued on, they could feel a slight breeze and Ash immediately followed after it. At least they knew to follow air currents in the middle of a cave. "Finally!" he exclaimed and Pikachu followed his trainer instantly as he started to run towards the exit. Red, however, frowned, and the hairs on the back of his neck started to stand up.

Something wasn't right.

Quickly, he caught up to Ash, yanking him back by his backpack and Pikachu stopped, looking at them curiously. "Uhh… Red, what's wrong?" He looked around while Misty and Gold glanced ahead to follow Red's gaze. The way was clear, but Red didn't want to go out, and from his nervousness and how he grabbed a pokéball, it caused the others to grow tense as well.

From the entrance of the cave, there were four Koffing, each releasing a thick Smokescreen, using the air currents to blow it towards the four trainers. Red immediately released Charizard, silently telling it to get rid of the smoke through his coughing. Gold released Gira, shouting, "Gira, use Psychic! Get rid of the Koffing!"

"Staraptor, help Gira and use Ariel Ace!" Ash cried.

"Wheezing, Double Hit!"

A Wheezing appeared and used Double Hit against Staraptor and Gira first, knocking them out of the way and turned its attention Charizard, sending it flying away. Red hadn't had any time to try and give him a command when the Wheezing hit him and immediately decided that this Wheezing's attack hurt like hell. As he hit the floor, the wind was knocked out of him, making him involuntarily gasp and struggle to get back up. The Wheezing seemed to smirk before disappearing into the smoke again and Charizard was over his trainer, remaining there to keep him protected despite Red's silent protests as took a hold of his shoulder as soon as he stood up. Red wrapped a hand around his own chest and looked up at the fire-breathing dragon but stopped, seeing genuine worry in his eyes and face as he tried to find the Wheezing again.

He looked around as well and finally pointed. Because of the thick smoke, he doubted Charizard could see his hand and he finally muttered, "Dragon Pulse." Charizard refused to move from his spot beside the oldest trainer and reared his head back, the purplish light breaking through the smoke and hit the Wheezing spot-on. With the attack getting rid of the smoke, Gold could see that a man stood with the Koffing, hunched over slightly and smiling despite the Wheezing falling in front of him.

Ash glared, not recognizing him but it seemed as if Gold did, and he grew nervous almost immediately, sending out Toga as well. "Petrel is one of the Team Rocket admins! We have to be careful!" he said, hands in fists. He couldn't help but notice how Red was clutching his chest and Charizard standing right beside him, seeming unwilling to let him out of his sight.

Petrel smirked. "Be careful? Well, I would hope that you won't be, since none of you will get out of this cave alive." He thrust his hand forward. "Koffing! Selfdestrcut!"

_Coward!_ Red thought immediately, covering his face as the Koffing started to glow.

With the four Koffing at the mouth of the cave, all of them knew he would try to bury them alive. The poison pokémon obeyed and Red felt Charizard shove him to the ground to protect him again, while Typhlosion stood in front of Gold and Misty, and Staraptor in front of Ash and Pikachu. They were all flown backwards from the sheer force of the explosions, and the rocks started falling. The rumbling seemed to last for forever, and as soon as the lights went out, there was a muffled laughing. "Have a nice time, trainers!" Petrel's voice shouted through the rocks.

Red coughed, looking up. The only source of light he had was Charizard's tail flame, but it was dim and he looked at the dragon, who huffed and lifted his head to glare at the new rock wall that blocked them from getting out. He winced as he rubbed his shoulder and heard Misty calling for her three companions but as soon as she spotted Charizard's tail, she rushed over to them. "Red! Red, are you all right?" She was covered in dust and dirt, there were a few scratched but she was otherwise unharmed and he nodded, dropping his arm. "I can't find Ash or Gold, and… and Gold was right in front of me!"

As soon as she said it, he heard Gold's voice shout, "Misty! Red! Where are you?"

"Pikachu!" the electric mouse's voice echoed.

"We're over here!" Misty shouted back and tried to follow the sound of their voices. She ventured out of Charizard's tail flame and gave a scream and finally a rather loud, "Oof!" Alarmed, Red got up to run after her. He didn't need all of them being separated! But he didn't expect the floor to open up in front of him and gave his own yelp of surprise as he started falling. Charizard instantly took after him, catching him before he landed on top of Misty and Ash.

"You know what I just remembered?" Gold said, crossing his arms across his chest.

"What did you just remember?" Ash groaned, rubbing his head after Misty got off of him.

"There is another way out through this level of the cave, but it leads to the Ruins of Alph. I'm sure it'll be a slight… ehm… detour though."

"The Ruins of Alph? That'll take us forever to get to!" Ash exclaimed. "That's almost to Goldenrod, isn't it?"

"Yea, but if we hurry we will be out of here soon!" Gold smiled at them. "Plus, we can go through Violet City a lot easier now, we'll just be in a cave for a few days."

Ash and Misty groaned while Red discovered a newfound loathing of caves.

* * *

Just after the rocks had collapsed in the front of the cave, Petrel was laughing. All four of those pesky trainers were squished just like the bugs they were! Giovanni would be so pleased with him! He called the number immediately, smiling as he hummed to himself. "What is it, Petrel?" the boss' voice demanded.

"Good news, boss, I just took down a few trainers that you want gone. Squished them in the entrance of the Union Cave—"

"Don't bother thinking they are gone, Petrel! You are dealing with two champions in there, and I doubt they are dead. If you can prove that you got rid of them, I will be convinced. Do not underestimate your opponents. I want Blue and Red alive, understand? That Johto kid can be yours, but the ones who humiliated me are the ones I want to deal with myself!" He hung up and Petrel pouted as he pocketed his pokégear.

"Touchy, touchy," He mumbled to himself and walked off. Fine, he'd get rid of those other kids. He was sure Archer would be very pleased if he got rid of that Gold brat for them. He was the one that had ruined them a second time, but this time… this time, Team Rocket would come back with a vengeance so great, not even the champions could stop them!

* * *

**Happy Easter! I, personally, am enjoying the chocolate my friends got me today. They're the best ever. XD Remember to review/follow/favorite! :D  
**


	20. Petalburg City, Hoenn

**Petalburg City, Hoenn**

Sapphire didn't seem to like May at all. In fact, she seemed to despise her and her contest ways. She was far too similar to an immature child than, what May claimed to be, a professional coordinator. If she was a so-called professional, then she wouldn't be as immature as she was. _Sheesh, she's even more girly than Ruby, an' I thought that was impossible!_ She sighed in frustration and rubbed her head. Norman wasn't the cold-hearted gym leader she remembered, either. He welcomed them and even invited Dia, Pearl and herself for lunch, all smiles and not serious in the least bit. Her little brother Max wasn't as annoying—

_Wait, nope, he's actually more annoying than his sister._ He wouldn't stop interrupting them about random little facts that most of them already knew and while his parents and sister didn't seem to mind, it irritated Pearl and Sapphire immensely whereas Diamond learned to ignore him and continued with his feast. After the others had finished with their lunch, Norman had asked them where they had come from, since Professor Birch had only told them that they were from somewhere else, and Pearl grinned as he replied, "We're from an alternate dimension!"

Norman eyed the trio curiously. "Another dimension? The professor failed to mention that. I guess that's why you look like May, huh? How many others are there? From your world?"

Sapphire's face fell and Diamond frowned. "Seven. We heard that mostly everyone has been found in different regions, but no one has seen Ruby or another trainer named Silver," he replied calmly. "Blue wanted us to wait here in Hoenn, but we agree with Sapphire; we can't sit around and not look for our missing friends. Maybe Silver and Ruby are here, and they're just lost or they're in trouble or worse—"

"_Don't say that!" _Sapphire snapped immediately, her temper flaring as she stood from her seat. The table fell silent, all eyes turned to her with shock at her sudden exclamation. "Ruby will be fine when we find him, and he's more than capable to protect himself. If you haven't forgotten, we were the ones who stopped the Hoenn disasters using Kyogre and Groudon, plus Team Aqua and Team Magma!" She sat down again, frowning and tried to calm down. She took a deep breath, a bit of grief washing over here, missing her traveling companion and it was clear when she muttered, "He'll be all right. They both will be."

Pearl frowned, knowing exactly how she was feeling, but he was simply glad that he at least knew where Little Miss was, and at least she was in a region she was familiar with and not in this hot climate like he and Dia were in. Norman coughed a little to try and disrupt the awkward silence that followed. "In any case, I am sure you will all find them and the rest of your friends." He smiled at them. "Besides, you have May and Max here to help you all. I know that there will be other trainers out there that would be willing to help you all as well."

The Sinnoh duo looked at each other, while Diamond hesitated and nodded before both of them stood from their seats as well. "We should get going, we don't want to keep anyone waiting," Pearl said and Sapphire immediately jumped to her feet again with a bright grin to follow the boys anxiously.

May and Max seemed a little more hesitant than the three other trainers, but they followed them out the door anyhow after saying their good-byes to their parents. "So, where should we begin looking? Maybe we should meet up with Ash and the others before we start running around Hoenn," May said, walking beside Sapphire. Max was happy he could tell the obvious difference between his sister and her look-alike: May was far more girly than Sapphire, she didn't have that wild look about her like the blue-clad trainer did.

Sapphire rubbed her chin in thought. "Well, maybe we can, but there are others that are searching Johto right now. Maybe we can search Hoenn, but Ruby knows this place like the back of his hand, so he won't get lost." She hoped he knew Hoenn like she believed he did, but she hesitated again. He'd done all of his traveling through car and boat, he didn't know the wilderness like she did. Finally she sighed. "Let's just go meet up with Blue and the others, I'm sure if we cover the rest of the way for them, they won't have to search as much or as long or hard. But I get the feeling that neither of them are in Hoenn."

May nodded and her brother started walking ahead, pulling out an electronic device. He looked up at Pearl happily, deciding to show off his strange device. "This is my map, see? All we need to go is this way and we'll be good to go!" He tapped a part of the screen. "It can show me different routes, cities, towns, mountains, and even the geographical landscapes of the surrounding area, and if I press this button, it can tell me where we are so we won't ever get lost!"

Pearl peeked at the map and blinked, taking out his poketch. "Even my map isn't that detailed," he stated and tapped the screen a few times. "I don't even think it has a map of Hoenn programmed inside of it." He looked at the others. "Let's get going, we only have so much time the sun starts to go down and we'll be stuck outside to camp for the night."

Diamond nodded and followed his friend out of the city while the other three trailed behind them. May and Max were at least quiet most of the time as they walked, probably to focus on their route instead of complaining. After almost an hour of walking, however, May was beginning to complain how much her feet hurt and how much she wished she had her bike with her so that she didn't have to walk. "Can you not whine every five seconds?" Dia said and Sapphire groaned audibly. He was complaining about her complaining! Who wouldn't get annoyed with younger traveling companions?

Max, however, ignored them, staring up at the sky until he stopped and pointed. "What's that?" he asked and the others stopped what they were doing and looked up as well.

Up above them as black as night was one of the black holes again. Nervousness crept into May and she gulped loudly. "W-what is that thing?" she managed to ask.

"It's one of those black hole portal thingies that pulled us into this world is what!" Sapphire exclaimed, smiling a bit but she lost the smile soon when it didn't do anything. "Maybe we need to fly into it to get home or—or maybe Ruby's in there!"

Diamond frowned and glanced at her, shaking his head. "It could also throw you into a different world and then we'd _really_ have a hard time trying to find you too!" He turned his eyes back up at the black hole as it grew smaller and eventually disappeared from the sky. "Professor Birch did say we would see those kinds of portals anyway, the ones that just sit up in the sky like something's trying to watch the ground."

Pearl rubbed his head. "Maybe Giratina's trying to keep an eye on us or something if someone's watching us."

"But why send us to this world? Aren't there other worlds out there that would be better to send enemies?" Max asked and May nodded in agreement.

Sapphire shrugged and turned her eyes back to the brother and sister. "I don't know but I don't think Giratina would do this to us willingly. Whatever is going on, I think it was trying to protect us by sending us here. But if it sent us here—"

"—Then someone else like, say, Team Galactic or Rocket found out, then they could easily take over this place since no one would expect it," Diamond interrupted. He looked at the rest of the group, finally starting to look nervous. Lax was on his head on top of his head and sensing his trainer's nervousness, he, too, began to feel the same way and flailed its arms in front of Dia's eyes as the trainer ran around in circles, causing Max, May and Sapphire to sweat-drop as Pearl looked on. "Gah! What're we gonna do? We gotta protect you guys, find Ruby and Silver, find out what's going on with Giratina and try and find a way home!"

Pearl yanked the other boy by the scarf, sending Dia crashing into the ground. "Dia—no, Diamond! Calm down! We'll be all right!" he said and helped him up again.

"Yea, that's right!" May added and smiled at them. "You'll all get home in no time, I promise! Plus, we'll be there all the way to help you guys."

Sapphire looked at her counterpart and smiled back at her. "We appreciate the help too, any help we can get, really. I have a feeling we'll be here for a while, so let's get started and make our way to Johto!"

* * *

**So, uh, sorry about the wait and stuff. I had lost my muse for a while there, and then stuff happened in life and then I got distracted and then it started getting hot so I actually went outside and saw actual sunlight! :O Anyway, enough of listening (reading, pfft XD) to my excuses. From here on out, I'll try to update every Monday, I promise. I'll miss a few updates here and there, but it won't go poof for two or three weeks like it did this time. And next, we'll find out what Platinum and Crystal are up to ;D I'm actually really excited to write about them finally but anyhow, review/follow/favorite!  
**


	21. Canalave City, Sinnoh

**Canalave City, Sinnoh**

Crystal was growing bored of all this sitting around and reading. Her companion, however, seemed very content in the library reading all sorts of books with Sinnoh's mythology. The walls were lined with books from ceiling to floor, covered in shelves and books thick and thin. It was a reader's paradise, and it seemed to be just the place Platina loved to be in. Crys wasn't sure if she would ever want to leave the library to go home at all even with her nose stuck inside of an older book about Giratina, Palkia and Dialga. She watched Platinum for a few moments before sitting up. "This is getting boring, I know I should be helping with the reading and all, but that's even more boring. I prefer going out there to study the pokémon by catching them!" she complained and Platina didn't even look up from her book. "Are you listening?!"

"Yes, but you don't need to shout." Platina set the book down, looking at her with intelligent eyes. "You could try to call Professor Oak to ask where Gary is at. He said he would meet us here two hours ago and help us learn more about Giratina and Palkia." She dug her face into the book again. "Besides, if you're bored you could have just said something hours ago instead of sitting there and falling asleep. I'm enjoying it here."

Crystal tapped a few numbers into her pokégear. "Maybe I can try and reach Silver again, he won't be as annoying as Gold will." She put it up against her ear but only received the same tone she had before: a simple, repeating tone as if the line was busy. It was strange, however; the updated pokégears they had all received could receive more than one call at once. With a sigh, she put the pokégear back down around her neck. "I just hope he's okay…"

Platina had set her book down again as she watched her and smiled gently. "I'm sure you'll see him soon, Crystal. He and Ruby must be together, right? Even if they aren't in this world, they will still be somewhere in contact with Giratina."

"How do you know that?"

"Because we are seeing the black holes in the sky, right?" She pointed upwards. "If we are seeing those, then other worlds that have been affected by this have seen them as well." She looked back at her companion then towards the staircase. "In any case, we have to wait for Gary anyway. If he doesn't show up today, then we have to wait for him in the pokémon center or somewhere he'll know where to find us."

Crystal groaned, already bored. Platina was a nice girl and all, but she was… well, _boring._ Compared to traveling with Gold and Silver a few times, they were always on the move, always ready to go and do battle or capture more pokémon. She got up from her spot and stretched. She needed a walk, a really long walk.

"If you're really that bored, Crystal, then why don't we head over to Iron Island? It's a good place to train, that's where Dia trained for a few days before headed to Lake Verity to try and stop Team Galactic from stealing Mesprit. I don't know what it's like in this dimension, but Dia said that he had to fight all sorts of pokémon and that a Steelix was their leader." Just thinking about her friend made her heart sink. She knew where they were but, naturally, she was worried about them and for some reason, couldn't take her mind off of Diamond. She shook her head mentally to clear her thoughts and glanced back up at Crystal, smiling as the other girl rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

"I think it's a good idea. For the rest of the day, at least. You need to rest that head of yours, braniac." She smiled and ignored Platina's immediate retort, instead laughing over it and running out of the stuffy library building joyfully. Once out in the sun, she took a deep breath, taking in the strong scent of sea water and salt, the sounds of waves and Wingull and happy to have that cool breeze instead of the hot sun over their heads. She turned her head and watched Platina come out as well, holding the book she'd checked out underneath her arm. "So how do we get to Iron Island anyway? Just take a boat or something?"

A mischievous twinkle came to Platina's eyes. "I would imagine, smarty." She giggled at Crystal's glare. "We can ask around to see if anyone would be willing to take us to Iron Island."

"I'm sorry to eavesdrop, but did you say Iron Island? I can take you there," said a voice from behind and both girls turned around.

A boy a little older than them with a similar spiky hair-do and wore a black shirt with purple cargo pants stood behind them alongside an Umbreon sitting loyally beside him, glowing with happiness as it watched them curiously. Platina and Crystal did a double-take. "Blue?" She shook her head as Blue's counterpart looked confused. "I mean you're Gary, right? Gary Oak?"

He nodded. "So then you two must be Crystal and Platinum. So why do you want to go to Iron Island anyway? Shouldn't we be in the library looking up information on Giratina?"

Crystal huffed and crossed her arms across her chest. "We've been in there for forever and I got bored, so Platina suggested we go to the island for some training."

The Sinnoh trainer nodded in agreement. "It would be good if we got some training in, but we can go over our information together on the way there, right?"

Gary didn't seem to like the idea of getting side-tracked but gave in with a quiet sigh. "I guess so, but we do have to be careful. I heard some of those pokémon can get a little viscous in the cave." He shouldered his backpack and turned around. "Follow me, there's a boat that leaves in a few minutes, actually. Good timing on my part then, huh?"

They both nodded. As they got on the boat, Platina immediately rushed to the edge of the railing, grinning as she looked at the water. "I always find that the ocean is very soothing," she said as the boat took off. "Even if it is only a thirty minute ride to the island." She looked up as Crystal and Gary appeared on either side of her, both of them smiling and wordlessly agreeing with her.

It was a short ride to the island, all three of them talked about their normal daily lives, though Gary was astounded when Crystal boasted she had caught all of Kanto and Johto's pokémon, and a few from Hoenn. Platina was equally impressed but as soon as the island came into view, they were overjoyed, each of them ready to climb off. "Here we are, Iron Island." Gary turned to the crewmate that had led them down. "We leave every thirty minutes to pick up more trainers and drop them off and such, so if you'd like to go back in a half hour, we'll be here."

They nodded and walked off towards the flight of stairs that led up to a mouth of the Iron Island cave. "I have wanted to come here for some time too," Gary said as he stuffed his hands in his pockets. "They say that Registeel lives in here and I want to take a look. I don't know where it could be, but if the search takes more than a few hours, then I can search later, I guess." He headed inside of the cave first, glancing at Umbreon as its ears twitched. "What's wrong, Umbreon?"

"Umbre…" It looked around almost nervously and Platina blinked, glancing around as well. It stopped, placing a paw in front of them as it stared ahead. "Umbreon!"

Gary looked ahead and Crystal blinked. "What's the matter?" she asked, trying to look over to where they were looking at.

"There's a hole here, a big one too. I wonder what's down here." He took off his backpack, taking some rope out. "I'm going to climb down there, if you two would like to join me, then go right on ahead."

Crystal nodded and helped him tie one end to a sturdy rock and Platina watched them, looking a little nervous. "Are you sure it's safe?" she asked and Crystal couldn't help but to giggle. "What's so funny?!"

"We'll be fine, Platina. Gary is Blue's counterpart, and if they're so alike, then he's got to be as strong as he is!"

"Still… we shouldn't go into a place where the only entrance is a hole in the ground."

"What're you so afraid of?"

Platina twiddled her thumbs nervously. "Getting stuck."

Crystal rose a brow. "You won't get stuck, now come on!"

She sighed. "I have a bad feeling about this," she mumbled as she followed them down into the ruins.

"Maybe it's just something you ate, braniac."

* * *

**The 20th chapter is up! Whoo! I'm trying to work on another fanfic, but this one isn't going to be Pokemon, it'll be Final Fantasy VII featuring my favorite character ever: Vincent Valentine. Can't go wrong with a red-cloaked Turk, now can we? :P  
**


	22. Route 38-39, Johto

**Route 38/39, Johto**

Blue was about ready to punch someone, kick, bite or scream his own head off. Being in this world was getting them nowhere, the ghost gym leader was useless and he was stuck with a girl and her stubborn piplup, a former gym leader who didn't have pokémon anywhere considerable to gym leader status (or at least, by his own standards) and Yellow who, well, was being Yellow!

Morty wasn't able to search for Ruby or Silver; he had claimed he had no such ability when, in fact, he did! Yellow had even confirmed that he wouldn't be able to see them even if it was the same Morty from their world: they didn't have anything that belonged to Ruby or Silver, simple as that. But when Blue tried calling Red and he didn't answer, he mumbled something like, "Typical," then tried Gold's number. When he didn't pick up, he became worried, knowing the other trainer would have at least answered. After trying several more times, he set his pokégear back into his pocket. "Something is wrong," he muttered to himself.

Brock looked around. "Maybe they're in a cave or something. I know caves don't get much reception, depending on how deep they are." He hesitated, glancing at Yellow as she faltered, opening and closing her mouth as if she wanted to say something but cast her eyes downwards, having the same thought as Brock. "Or maybe Team Rocket got to them and they're in some sort of trouble."

Blue shook his head, his eyes darkening slightly. "They'll be able to get themselves out of it," he quickly replied.

"I wish Green was here, she'd be able to help us," Yellow sighed as Dawn blinked.

"Who's that?"

"She's a pesky girl is what she is," the Viridian gym leader said and got up from where he was sitting. "Let's go, we can't stay in one place for long. Team Rocket is way ahead of us, obviously. They're probably already on their way to fully catching Giratina or Palkia or whatever it is they're after. We don't even know what they want!" He knew he was ranting but at the current time, his frustration took over and he decided to continue. "Hell, we were thrown into this world scattered with two of us missing entirely and on the plus side, Red's group is missing now too!"

"We don't know that—"

"Then what else do you think happened to them? They won't just randomly shut off their pokégears and not answer any calls." A very aggravated Blue took a deep breath to try and calm himself and stop ranting. "Sorry. It's just—"

"You're worried and you want to go home," Yellow said gently and Blue looked at her as she smiled up at him. "Don't worry, Blue. Soon we'll find out where Silver and Ruby are, then we'll all be back together faster than you can blink. Then we'll go home and have nothing to worry about."

Blue couldn't help but to smile a little at the short girl. He wasn't sure if everything would entirely be over "faster than he could blink" but he was sure that Yellow was simply trying to cheer him up and it was working. "You're… you're right. Nothing to worry about. Last I saw Silver, I'm sure he'd be able to take care of himself and Ruby with his hands tied behind his back."

Yellow nodded. "Green talks about him all the time. He's like her little brother, she says that they're evenly matched when they battle each other, kinda like you and Red."

Blue snorted. "Nope, that's where you're wrong. Red's… better than I am. I get lucky sometimes, but most times he beats me." He glanced ahead, starting to walk quicker. "I'd like to get to Olivine City by nightfall. Johto routes aren't that big, compared to Kanto routes."

Brock shrugged, easily keeping up with Blue's pace while Dawn was having a little difficulty while Yellow nearly had to jog before she released her dodrio, Dodosuke, and her face betrayed her relief at not having to run along with the group. "I'm too short," she told them and Blue just rolled his eyes.

"You know, even their friend Ash could keep up and he's pretty short himself," Blue stated, bored, and Yellow huffed at him but said nothing. They passed the Miltank farm and as soon as they reached Route 39, Dawn finally asked if they could stop for a rest for the millionth time it seemed. _We are getting nowhere with her constant stops. She's just as bad as that pesky girl, I swear,_ Blue thought, watching as the girl sat down instead. "Come on, this is the fifth thousandth time you've taken a break, we're almost there."

"This is the third time, thank you very much! And if you didn't walk so fast then I wouldn't want to take a break so much!" Dawn retorted, while Piplup sat right beside his trainer in the same fashion, legs spread and arms across their chests. "Piplup's just as tired as I am, right?"

"Pip, piplup!"

Blue rolled his eyes. "Whatever, just hurry up with your break, unlike you guys, I want to get a room in the pokémon center so I don't have to sleep outside."

Yellow grinned suddenly. "Me and Dodosuke can go ahead and do that for us! We can get there and come back to you guys in no time!"

"Not a chance. We need to stick together." He groaned, leaning against a tree while the shortest member of their group slid off of her pokémon's back. "Which also means Dawn needs to hurry up and make her feet stop hurting. Didn't you go all around Sinnoh without the use of a pokémon?"

"Yea, but we didn't walk this fast! Plus, we had regular meals at regular times with Brock's cooking!" Dawn groaned, looking at Brock. "Can't you please make us some food and show off your cooking skills to Blue so that he could at least be convinced to slow down a little bit?"

Brock went through his backpack, pulling out a pan. "I could at least make us a quick snack. Total time, maybe ten minutes including prep—"

"Fine, fine, whatever!" Blue exclaimed, throwing his hands up into the air in defeat and frustration, finally sitting down. He didn't need to bother to hide his irritation, it radiated off of him like a Torkoal's smoky back and he was glad none of them bothered him for the time it took Brock to cook little rice balls.

Dawn was brave enough to approach him, handing him one of the treats. "Try one. Trust me, they're delicious."

It did look quite tasty, and his stomach groaned loudly, and if Dawn had heard it, she didn't say anything about it. "I don't doubt it," he finally mumbled and took it, taking a bite and blinked a few times. "This is delicious! The Brock in my world didn't know how to cook for anything!"

"Ehh… thanks, I guess," Brock replied but smiled, already finished with his food as he started washing the small pan he'd used as a cutting board.

They all looked up when Blue's pokégear started to ring madly and immediately, he grabbed it out of his pocket. "Where the hell have you all been? Why haven't you been answering my calls?" he demanded loudly.

The voice on the other end was instantly irritated. "Well, Petrel decided to meet us and tried to bury us alive in Union Cave and we got lost for almost a day after the floor gave way and we finally got out!" Gold shouted, and Misty yelled something about shouting in the background. "Oh, you be quiet! You're shouting just as loud as me!"

Blue sighed, his free hand meeting his face and let Yellow take the pokégear out of his other hand. "You fought Petrel? Ariana attacked us at Ecruteak City, so we have to assume Proton and Archer are around since we know Giovanni is, right? We all have to be careful, any of us could be attacked at any time, at any place." She looked up at Blue nervously and Gold's voice sighed.

"We know. Red's been on a constant lookout, it's like he's scared or something, but I don't blame him, so are the rest of us. Whatever they're doing in this world, it isn't anything good. We gotta save it before something drastic happens."

Yellow giggled. "Hopefully nothing like the Hoenn Battle Frontier, right?"

"Oh, Arceus, I hope not," Blue mumbled.

"What happened there?" Dawn asked curiously.

"Tell you later." He took the pokégear again. "Where are you all now?"

"We're almost at Violet City now, but there doesn't seem to be anything of interest here so we're going to head for Cherrygrove tomorrow and then go through Dark Cave to get to Blackthorn City. But we're also thinking that two of us should go through the cave and the other two should go over Route 45 instead." There was a pause and a sound of distaste. "I don't think Red wants to take the cave," Gold added with a snort.

Blue chuckled. "What? You afraid of dark places?"

There was a laugh and then an, "Ow! What the hell, Red? That's something Super Serious Gal does!"

"Fine, you do whatever you want, but I doubt Silver or Ruby are going to be inside of the cave, or in any cave for that matter. Check cities and routes, that's all we need to do." They said their good-byes and he hung up, putting it back into his pocket. "At least they're all right. Ariana won't bother us for a while, but Archer and Proton can, plus Giovanni still hasn't technically shown his face, but I think we have to go look for him instead of him looking for us."

Dawn gulped. "We… we aren't going to go after him will we?"

Blue frowned. He didn't need to get them involved, but they had already done that themselves a long time ago. "You decided to help us get home, right? We're bound to run into him anyhow. We could use all the help we can get."

Brock had to grin. "That's the opposite of what you said from when we started out on this journey back in Pallet Town. You said you guys didn't need help."

"Yea, well, that's when I thought Giovanni wasn't after us specifically. He knows who we are, he might not know your names, but Ariana certainly knows what you both look like, and if that doesn't put icing on the cake, a little bit of strawberries on top of that called _all_ of Team Rocket could be after us. So if you still want to help us, then go ahead, but if you are too scared, then I won't be disappointed if you went back home."

Dawn laughed. "Are you crazy? And leave you guys alone? Nope, I think I'll stick with you all."

Brock nodded and Yellow smiled, looking up at Blue, who hesitated. "Well. Didn't think I'd find people as crazy as us in this place. Let's get going, shall we?" As he watched their oddball little group, he smiled slightly and looked ahead again to see where he was walking.

_Maybe… it isn't so bad here._

* * *

**Ugh, finals are crazy! I had my last one on Friday, so I celebrated a little too hard on Saturday night XD It was an amazing night, but I am sorry for not updating as quickly as I said I would. Now that finals are over, I can actually uphold that lol. As usual, thanks for reading! Don't forget to review/favorite/follow :D**


	23. Cherrygrove City, Johto

**Cherrygrove City, Johto**

Violet City had been completely uneventful. Falkner knew nothing of the portals opening up in the skies, they apparently weren't as common as they were back in Azalea or even Goldenrod. Red was bored, all of this traveling and nothing was happening as quickly as he would have liked it to at all. He sighed as Gold tried to get him to train with him again for the hundredth time, saying that he wanted to show off their skills in front of the new trainers that were coming from New Bark Town. Red just gave him a bored look and for some reason Gold decided to try and annoy him further.

Pikachu jumped off of his shoulder soon, his cheeks sparking and gave Gold a tiny jolt of its Thunder, but it was enough to scare the younger trainer away for a while. They were in the pokémon center of Cherrygrove City for the night and while Misty and Gold headed to bed, Ash and Red were still up, the former trying to stay awake. Ash yawned and Pikachu with him. "You should go to bed too, Red, you look even more tired than Misty did." He stood up, glancing at him as Red sighed, scratching his Pikachu's head. "Will we train again anytime soon?"

Red shrugged in response and looked up as the other trainer disappeared into the room. "Pika?" He looked down at the pokémon in his lap and smiled a bit as the electric mouse nudged his chin, obviously trying to tell him to get to bed as well. Just as he was about to stand up, he heard a familiar ringing and he took out his pokégear, but he frowned at the unknown number. "Chu?" Pikachu tilted his head and he hesitantly answered it.

"Ah, so you do answer it! Listen, kid, I know where you are all at. I know you've found your other self in this world, too," said a harsh voice, and anger filled Red immediately. Pikachu's cheeks sparked a little, recognizing Giovanni's distinct voice as well. "You and your friends are scattered all over the world, aren't they?"

Finally he dared to ask, "How did you get this number? Why are you calling me?"

"So the silent champion finally speaks again. How I got it is irrelevant. I am calling you to tell you to stay out of our way. You kids have been meddling in the affairs of Team Rocket for far too long, and if one of my admins tells me that they were stopped by any of you, I will come out there myself and take care of you."

Red finally smirked. "I took you down. I can do it again." Pikachu growled, his cheeks sparking.

"How did Nidoking treat you? You think you're the only one who's been training these last five years?" There was a purr, as if Persian was right beside the speaker and it was happily being pet by its master. Red scowled at the pokégear, tempted to just throw it against the wall. "You can end up just like that Lapras if you or anyone else tries to stop us." With that, he hung up and Red frowned and looked at Pikachu, scratching his head to try and calm down.

"_You can end up just like that Lapras if you or anyone else tries to stop us." Why did you have to bring that up, you son of a bitch?_ He watched the pokégear for a little bit before he pressed the speed dial for Blue's number. As it rang, he absentmindedly pet Pikachu until he heard, "Do you know what time it is?"

Blue sounded like he'd just woken up, but he didn't care and he replied with, "He called me."

There was a pause. "'He'? Who's 'he'?"

"Giovanni."

Silence and finally Blue cursed and he vaguely over heard Brock's voice asking what was wrong. "What did he say? Nothing good, I assume." He hesitated long enough for Blue to give a grunt. "Red if you don't say _something_, I swear—"

"He threatened to kill us if we continue to stop him. He also brought up… an unpleasant memory."

When he went quiet, Blue sighed. "I don't know what that unpleasant memory is, Red. Remember when I told you secrets would come back to you? Well, this one is coming back to bite you in the—"

"Lapras is dead because of him." That shocked Blue to the core, he knew it since he went silent again. Red suddenly found it hard to speak, even harder than normal and Pikachu looked concerned. "He took Lapras and when I finally found her, she was dead. He said it was punishment for even going near Team Rocket's base."

"Lapras? Why would he kill a Lapras anyway? It would be worth it to just sell it, more money that way." He sighed. "And—"

"He offered me a position in Team Rocket that same day."

"He what?"

Red stared at Pikachu again, frowning. "He said I'd be a better admin than any of the ones he has now."

Blue gave a soft scoff. "You obviously said no."

He avoided the topic now. "Be careful. He'll try and go after us himself." With that he hung up and ignored Blue's immediate re-dial. He turned off the pokégear, picked up Pikachu and headed for the room they were given. He glanced at his three sleeping companions and frowned again. Getting back home would be harder now that Team rocket confirmed his fears: Giovanni did want to kill them, but at least he would only if they got in his way again. He smirked to himself as he climbed into bed. He'd just have to protect his friends even more now.

* * *

Giovanni smiled a little when Red hung up the pokégear, giving a soft chuckle as he scratched Persian's fur. "He took the bait, sir?" asked Archer, who stood in front of him with Proton.

"Yes, he did. They'll all be looking for Team Rocket now, and when they do, you don't have to hold back. Once you find Silver, tell him to meet me here. Convince Red to join us in any way you wish, I don't care about the other trainers. You may kill them if you want."

Archer smirked and nodded, turning to leave while Proton followed him out. "Sir? What about this world's Giovanni?" Proton asked and turned back around. "Won't he find out we're here too?"

"He can't go back and forth, now can he? We have an unlimited supply of members now that we have Giratina with us. The master of dimensions was easily caught." He looked at the purple pokéball sitting on his desk. "Not even team Galactic could catch it. That just means we are far better than any of them."

"Of course, sir." With that, the two admins left him alone.

Giovanni looked at Persian, who blinked as he stood up. "Let's get to work, Persian. Keep an eye out on those brats for me." He put a collar on it, and as it gave a delighted sound, it ran off obediently. He turned on a monitor, smiling as he saw what Persian was seeing, startled Rocket members getting out of its way as it ran outside. _It'll be much easier to keep an eye on them this way._

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**Short chapter is short D: But I've been working on a second fanfiction that I am enjoying writing too. It's another pokemon themed one, even though I said I'd do a FFVII soon. I'm still working out the details for that one, lol. Anyway, the other one is called "Dreams" and it's a story of my OCs ;) Read it please? Thanks for reading this one too, of course! **


	24. Distortion World

**I'm sorry about that wait! I lost my muse for this fanfic for a long time, and then I started another fanfic that I'm enjoying a lot recently as well. Anyway, two month long hiatuses won't appear again! Next time if I go poof for a while, I'll let you all know. Welp, here's the next chapter!**

**You should also check out my other fanfiction "Dreams." It'd be awesome if you read that one as well :D**

* * *

**Distortion World**

Ruby gave a ragged sigh. He couldn't find anyone he knew in this Arceus awful, upside-down, side-by-side place! The waterfalls ran upwards, the sky was above, below and around him and the sun never shown in this dreary realm. He rarely saw the ruler of this world, but the few times he had, he knew better than to take it on. It was far too strong to take on by himself, he needed the other dex holders.

But where in the world were they? Where was Sapphire? Where would they be? Were they all still at Cinnabar Island? Or maybe they were somewhere else? He'd seen them fly up with him, he even held Sapphire's hand before the winds ripped them away and separated them. He heard their screams, a few had even passed out on the way through, including himself. He woke up in this strange place alone with only his pokémon beside him.

There were many places where they could have ended up in, the rocks that served as the land never ended, gravity was only normal in a few spots and he hadn't had a proper bath in what felt like weeks! Wherever this place was, he didn't like it. He stepped forward, recognizing the lighter gravity in this portion of the world and bounced forward; it made for easier travel that way.

The only noises he could hear were the sounds of his own breathing, of his pokémon, and of a distinct, ear-shattering roar that would occasionally come to pass. A great shadow would pass over him, but whatever that pokémon was, he assumed it was the one they had been searching for, the ones the Sinnoh Dex Holders had called Giratina.

Ruby jumped onto another rock and sighed, wiping his brow. _How long have I been here anyway? Seems like weeks. Wonder if everyone else is all right._ He straightened himself up. "Nothing that I can handle though!" he declared to himself and tossed a pokéball. "Zuzu!"

"Swamp!"

Ruby smiled brightly at the mud fish pokémon, but sighed anyway. "I know it's the same thing I've been asking, but see if you can sense anyone else around here." Zuzu nodded and the fin at the top of his head squirmed a bit before he sadly shook his head. Ruby sighed as well. "We're never gonna get out of here, are we?" he mumbled to himself and sat down.

"Pert, swampert." Zuzu laid down beside him, nudging his arm as best he could to comfort him. He smiled up at him as Ruby scratched his head and couldn't help but to smile back at the dull look he received. Zuzu wasn't the smartest pokémon in the world, but to his belief, he was certainly the toughest. He'd conquered all of Hoenn's contests! He was the son of a gym leader! He would get out of this mess by himself if he had to!

He stood back up, crossing his arms across his chest proudly, causing Zuzu to blink up at him in confusion. "C'mon, Zuzu! We have places to be, people to see!" he cried and pointed forward. "First thing's first. We're going that way to find some shelter away from that beast—"

"_GRAWWW!"_

Ruby yelped as the giant ghost seemed to appear out of nowhere, using a move unknown by Ruby through the shadows, and glared furiously through piercing red eyes. Its snake-like body was curved dangerously towards him, the first time Ruby had seen Giratina close-up. _Giratina doesn't seem to like us here!_ Ruby's eyes widened as it started to charge an attack. "Zuzu, let's get out of here!"

Zuzu ran after his trainer as the Aura Sphere came for them and missed just barely in time. Ruby frowned. _That's odd. Aura Sphere should never miss right?_ Giratina screeched loudly at them and instead of flying after them, it dove into the ground, using Shadow Force to catch up to them quicker than flying. As they ran, Ruby spotted something odd, something that looked very pretty, actually. It made Ruby's eyes light up and he would have stopped to take a closer look if they didn't have Giratina chasing them. It seemed to be a small bush with two flowers on either side of it, but whatever the plants were growing from, it was from white soil—that moved?!

Ruby did a double-take, but before he could think about looking at it a third time, the large body of Giratina emerged from the ground before he and Zuzu, causing them to slide to a stop. It reared back to attack with Dragon Claw until the green bush stood up and dashed over with a loud, "MIIIN!"

The light was blinding.

Ruby and Zuzu covered their eyes from the sudden flash and Giratina screeched again, though this time in pain and it disappeared, vanishing completely from sight. As soon as the light was gone, he removed his arm, seeing the little pokémon turn towards them with a smile on its face. "You're so cute!" he cried instantly and hugged it tightly. "You saved us from that mean ol' pokémon that would have eaten us! What was that move you used against it? It wasn't Flash otherwise it wouldn't have hurt Giratina so much!"

An odd sound came from the strange pokémon. It… it was _laughing_ at him! He broke the hug, holding it in front of him and sure enough, the snickering pokémon smiled at him, but it nodded instead. "Shaymin."

Ruby blinked a few times. This pokémon, only as big as his head, was here as well and it had stood up to Giratina without fear, or even a second thought for that matter. "What in the world are you doing here all by yourself?"

"Min?"

"Oh, who am I kidding? Pokémon can't talk. Well, whatever. We can get out of here, right? Back to wherever my friends are?"

Shaymin tilted its head and Zuzu cried out when the flowers on either side of its head started to glow. Ruby winced and set it down as it started to squirm, though it simply jumped onto his shoulder and finally rested on his head, tapping his forehead and pointed forward with its paw. "Shay. Shaymin, shay min!"

Relief flooded the two weary, lost travelers. Up ahead was a wonderful looking place, full of trees and Ruby recalled Zuzu back into his pokéball. Just as Ruby stepped through, he regretted not taking a breath beforehand. Whatever force that was between the Distortion World and this one hit him without mercy and knocked the wind out of him. He didn't even feel Shaymin jump off of his head, though he did feel his stomach go up to his throat and his brain turn around a few times.

Traveling through portals made him sick, it wasn't fun plus it felt like going over the sea in Mr. Briney's boat all over again!

The landing also came quickly and with full force. Shaymin was nowhere to be found and his head felt like a hammer had been taken to his skull and beaten several times. "Ow, ow, ow," he mumbled. He was on soft grass, for that he was grateful, but he wasn't grateful for the grass marks on his pants and jacket, but as he rubbed his head he heard footsteps running towards him.

"Hey—are you all right?!" the voice asked. Ruby looked up and felt instant relief that it wasn't Giratina. _Don't be silly, Giratina doesn't run, it doesn't even have any legs! _There stood a familiar raven-haired, yellow clothed boy with a Pichu on his shoulder, looking at him worriedly and beside him was a blue haired girl with grumpig tails that defied gravity and had a Misdreavus floating beside her. "We saw you fall from a portal. You didn't break anything, did you?"

"Gold? Crystal? Where are we? What happened?" he asked instead but the boy blinked a few times. "And since when did your hair grow so much?"

"My name isn't Gold. It's Jimmy, this is Marina and you're just outside of Silver Town."

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**Again, I apologize for the wait. Don't forget to favorite/follow/review! And thanks to all of you who already have :)  
**


	25. Olivine City, Johto

**Olivine City, Johto**

The trip from Hoenn to Johto was more than just one long, boring week. It seemed to take forever and a day just to get on board, get to their rooms, and even though they had time to train and battle each other, Max, Pearl, May, Diamond and Sapphire had nothing else better to do than to sit around and wait for the boat to pull into Olivine City's harbor. Diamond would constantly eat, Sapphire would wander off and train with her team and Pearl would be writing new manzai routines for he and Dia. Max and his sister would constantly bicker, the former complaining that he was bored all the time while the latter tried to get him to be quiet. As soon as land came into view, though, all five of them anxiously went up to the deck, watching as the cloudy sky threatened to pour rain all over themselves and the city.

It seemed to be a happy enough town, there were banners flying everywhere along the coast and people were still swimming even if weather didn't permit it to. The lighthouse was lit and Sapphire could almost, _almost_ see the Ampharos that lit it up. Even though it was just barely past one in the afternoon, it was still a gloomy atmosphere that no one seemed to enjoy.

As soon as the boat pulled to the dock and allowed its passengers to escape the confines of the ship, Pearl, of course, stepped off of their boat first. He'd never been to Johto before, but this was certainly _much_ better weather than Hoenn had! Plus, being at a coastal town, there was bound to be plenty of seafood, and knowing Dia, he would be eating some of it now. "Where did he go anyway?" he wondered out loud, hearing the others come from behind.

He turned around as May and Sapphire appeared. The two were carbon copies of each other, but while one was more toned and athletic, the other was chattering away, oblivious to her counterpart's annoyance. The two Blaziken behind them didn't seem to mind each other much but they both looked fed up with the girl's clashing that happened constantly while Max looked just as fed up as the pokémon. "Oi, have either of you seen Dia?"

May blinked. "I thought he was with you," she replied and Sapphire said nothing, looking around.

"Maybe he's looking for something to eat!" Max offered.

"Just look for an all-you-kin-eat buffet then," Sapphire said, bored. "Bound to be there. He an' Lax never stop eating."

Pearl sighed. Whatever, his partner could do whatever he pleased, right? He just wasn't expecting the other boy to appear in front of him suddenly with those huge, fake glasses and moustache and purposely shout. Pearl jumped and shouted in shock while the girls laughed at him and Dia grinned, pushing the glasses up. "Finally got you," Dia said and laughed.

"Dia! No, Diamond! No time for games! We have to catch up with everyone else!"

"And we will," May interrupted. "Come on, we can kick back and relax sometimes."

"We did on the boat!"

"Well, you're just impatient!"

"And you aren't?"

Sapphire scowled. "It's true! You're both the most impatient people ever!"

"Am not!" they both retorted in unison.

Dia was staring up the sky and looked at his companions. The blackness from Cinnabar Island was starting to appear, and it seemed to be growing into a monstrous size, large enough to start pulling the wind and even a few clouds into it, as long as gravity permitted, of course. "Guys…" Only Max was the one to hear him and he even tried tugging on his sister's arm to catch her attention, but she only brushed him off as she concentrated on the argument.

"You just need to take a deep breath and realize we'll get there when we get there!"

Why weren't they _listening_? Didn't they even bother to see what he was so anxious about?! It was getting bigger, too! "Guys…!"

Pearl huffed at the girls. "You two are the same way—"

Finally Diamond had enough of their petty argument and he snapped at them, "Guys!"

Dia's shout caught their attention and he turned around, pointing up. "Black holes aren't supposed to be that big and pulling anything up into it, right?"

All three of them looked up to where he pointed and their breaths held for a moment as their eyes widened.

Sure enough, there was a gaping portal above the city, pulling up shingles from rooftops, bushes, even the occasional panicking pokémon or human. Olivine City was in complete discord, panic ran through every single person that tried to get away from the strange portal that was starting to pull _cars _up into the air. "We have to help them! Toro! Come on!" Sapphire shouted, starting to sprint with her starter close behind.

May threw a pokéball. "Venusaur! Use Vine Whip to help them stay on the ground!" As Venusaur appeared and started saving the townspeople from being pulled in, Diamond and Pearl also threw their pokéballs.

"Gi! Try plugging up that hole!"

"Rayhiko! Chimhiko! Help Venusaur!"

Sapphire was helping people get inside, looking up and gasped as she saw the black hole seem to expand. She yelped as she grabbed a hold of a street post to keep herself on the ground and Toro helped her stay down, bracing herself to keep her trainer from flying up into the air with other humans. Sapphire looked up at the portal when she heard a loud roar, and as soon as her eyes widened yet again, a bright, shining light that appeared not even two seconds after that strange cry. She covered her eyes as she grew blinded and when she opened them again, it was gone, startling not only her, but most of the people on the ground. The wind stopped and whatever had risen into the air fell to the ground with harsh crashes. "What… was that?" she heard, as well as other murmurs from other townsfolk.

She wasn't even sure. She didn't know what was going on, but whatever that light had been, it had stopped the portal from pulling in more people and even closed it. The short minutes of chaos had suddenly come and disappeared and it left more questions among everyone. Sapphire looked at her companions as they recalled their pokémon.

"Sapphire! Are you all right?" Max asked and she nodded.

"I think so." She sighed in relief. "I was afraid I was goin' up with them. Where do you think those people disappeared to?"

"Maybe the other side," Diamond replied and hesitated. "They must be scared, but hopefully everyone that got pulled through are all right. It's all we can do."

May frowned sadly, looking up at the cloudy sky. The clouds seemed to still be in the shape of the circular portal that had been there, the force of the wind shaping it to seem like the eye of a hurricane. "So… Team Rocket huh?" she asked and gulped.

"They're making a real mess of things," Pearl mumbled.

"I wish it wasn't always Team Rocket. They're so annoying!" Max said.

"That's why we have to help the others defeat them!" Dia exclaimed and looked at Sapphire as she nodded in agreement.

"Come on, let's get out of here."

As they headed out of the city, May was tapping her chin. "Do you think the others will know about what happened?"

"I think so. It'll be all over the news right?" Max asked and looked up at his sister, who smiled and patted his shoulder.

"Of course it will. I hope we can see the others soon, I'm ready to get this all over with." She sighed and looked behind her as they reached the hill just outside of the city. "Hopefully everything will be all right," she whispered and kept going.

"It will be." Dia slowed down to walk beside her. "Everything turns out to be okay in the end. No matter what happens, it seems like it will always turn out all right even if we lose the battles. I'm sure Team Rocket's doing something to make Giratina this upset and I'm also sure that we will find something to help it get better. Then the destruction and pain and sadness will go away."

May blinked. This kid from the other world seemed like he knew full well what was going on, he even seemed to think that they would be the ones to help him. She doubted it would be themselves personally, but she as positive that they could help the legendary. She smiled and nodded, finally cheering up enough to try and catch up to the other two. "So where are we going to now?"

"I dunno. I'm just following them." Diamond was chomping on a sandwich and May wondered when he had even the time to make one. "They seem to know where they're going all the time."

"Well following them all the time would get boring, wouldn't it?"

He shook his head. "Nope, I don't have to think very hard if I follow them and besides, I'm a chef. Pokémon and humans alike love my cooking!" He stuck a fist out proudly. "If I can be a world-famous chef, then I can help everyone!" May blinked. He looked at her and smiled. "You just have to stay optimistic, even in these situations. I didn't befriend Mesprit for nothing!"

She only giggled and nodded, and the two caught up with the others as soon as they noticed the two were lagging behind. _Yes… He's right. Everything will be all right, no matter what happens._

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**If you didn't notice, it's starting to become more and more hectic around places :3 Next chapter? Hopefully a faster update than before XD But oh goodness :O**

**We're at 50 reviews (shoutout to blastburnman for that :D), 77 favorites and 92 follows! I've never had that many people and never really expected that many people to read this fic but get this: 25,587 views! I'll be sure to upload at least twice a month now. And as for Silver and Green... well, you'll just have to find out soon, now won't you ;)**

**For those of you who haven't favorited or followed, do it! Also, be sure to read my other fanfic that I'm working on called "Dreams." Thanks for reading and until next time!  
**

**~Nimmy**


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